The Railway Café celebrates caboose’s centennial

The Railway Café’s caboose continues to push new businesses forward as it reaches its centennial this year.

“One hundred years is a milestone,” The Railway Café owner Vicka Haywood said. “I want to bring it to the community’s attention that it’s part of Blaine and celebrate that the caboose is here because there’s only one caboose in Blaine.”

The red-and-black caboose at 795 Peace Portal Drive has welcomed an assortment of small businesses throughout the years, from fortune tellers to small cafes and postal businesses.

Tony Andrews, owner of Tony’s Just A Bite, brought the 1921 caboose to Blaine in the mid 1980s after seeing businesses operating out of cabooses during a vacation in the Cascade Loop. Andrews contacted one of the businesses, who directed him to a seller in Woodinville refurbishing the wooden railroad car.

In the months leading up to the caboose’s arrival in Blaine, Andrews posted a sign saying “It’s coming” on his restaurant, Tony’s Sandwich Shop, where Chada Thai is now located. He dug a hole in the ground for the caboose, which Andrews said confused people more. “Then I changed the sign one day to say ‘It’s going to happen today,’” he said.

Andrews said he originally brought the caboose to town with hopes that the city would use it as an information center but when the city decided not to pursue that idea, Andrews turned it into a gift store called Great Northern Buffalo Gifts, inspired by Great Northern Railway Company.

The day the caboose came to town, Andrews said community members were chattering about his new venture and packed Tony’s Sandwich Shop to celebrate the caboose with free cake and coffee.

“The anticipation made it exciting and stood out more,” he said.

After a divorce, Andrews’ ex-wife leased the caboose to several businesses before selling the property to its current owners.

In 2009, Peace Arch City Café got its start in the caboose before moving to H Street and then into its current brick-and-mortar across from Tony’s Just A Bite.

Peace Arch City Café co-owner Kylie Bestul said seeing the caboose advertised on Craigslist brought her and the café’s other co-owner, John Quimod, from Seattle to Blaine.

“We were attracted to the character of it. It was unique, small and something we could afford to do that would give us the chance to work together,” Bestul said. “When we found the caboose and we found Blaine, it seemed like the right fit.”

Bestul said the three years that Peace Arch City Café operated in the caboose allowed her and Quimod to learn how to run their first business.

“We were looking for something small and intimate the two of us could execute,” Quimod said. “Our relationship was brand new so it was a working honeymoon to see if the two of us could get along.”

The business partners eventually decided it was time to expand their café in a 1920s home on H Street before moving to their current location.

“It’s a great starter kit,” Quimod said. “Our demand kept growing but we had no space to grow.”

Nearly a decade later, Haywood opened The Railway Café in December 2018. Haywood said she told her husband she dreamed of starting her first café in the caboose and the next month, he found it on Craigslist.

“It was like it was meant to be,” said Haywood, who bought the business building three days later. “It was like it had my name on it.”

Train memorabilia and humorous life quotes line the café’s walls, which Haywood said is the result of investing time into decorating the café with knickknacks that represent her personality. The café’s menu also shows Haywood’s Middle Eastern travels with Turkish and Israeli coffee to homemade burekas and Lebanese falafel.

“I didn’t realize it was going to grow the way it did,” Haywood said of her café. “I just wanted a small coffee shop with a few sandwiches and baked goods and it exceeded all my expectations.”

Haywood and her sister, Aimee Beecroft, said they’ve experienced strong community support with the café and want to give back during its centennial. This summer, the café will do bi-weekly drawings for baskets with goods in June and July and surprise boxes with coupons and even a $25 gift card.

“Because our heart’s in it, it goes through to our product and our customer and they feel at home,” Beecroft said. “People are thankful we’ve made it because a lot of businesses have really struggled and we tell them, ‘It’s because of you.’”