It started as a good idea and turned into a movement. Specifically, it was a movement of rhubarb out of people’s yards in Empire and into the kitchen of Peggy Hubner.
Before you say, “Oh please, she’s writing about rhubarb again,” consider this: the Empire Rhubarb Movement happened because of Way Gone, crossed with summer camp and my ex-husband.
The July afternoon I met Peggy, I told her about the rhubarb sundaes at the Zesto drive-in in Alliance, Neb. Her eyes lit up.
She e-mailed me last week to report that she added rhubarb sundaes to the menu at the Lewis Sweet Shop, and they were a land-office success.
“Everybody in town was bringing me garbage sacks of their homegrown rhubarb,” she said. “They were so pleased to have something good to do with it.”
Peggy and Bernie Hubner bought the Lewis Sweet Shop in downtown Empire, population maybe 400, just about a year ago. You know the place – the little red building on the west side of Park Avenue, which is U.S. 40 as you drive through Empire en route to Berthoud Pass. If you get to the sign for the Hard Rock Cafe, you’ve gone too far.
Dwayne and Gerta Lewis opened the shop in 1951, selling hot dogs and candy. Over the years, they added ice cream, a sandwich grill and a popcorn machine.
The Lewises still owned the shop in my younger days, when any vehicle piloted by my ex-
husband, Dave, automatically stopped there for a milkshake on the way back from day skiing at Winter Park. The last time I visited was in June 1988, on the second-to-last day of the Ride the Rockies bike tour. You pedal up those switchbacks on the Mary Jane side of Berthoud, you earn yourself a chocolate shake on the Empire side.
The shake was good, but the place failed to impress.
I remember a small, dimly lit interior covered with paper signs written in an old person’s hand, each crankier than the last. They generally addressed the lack of manners, wayfinding, and/or common sense of the patrons. The one on the saltwater taffy bin said something like “What are you standing here for? Ice cream at other counter.” I hate to speak ill of the former owners, but it was clear that they were tired.
Interim ownership
Interim owners bought the Sweet Shop from the Lewises in 1994, right about the time I began driving to Grand County with Doug, who automatically stopped the car at the Empire Dairy King, almost directly across U.S. 40 from the Lewis Sweet Shop. The Dairy King also has great shakes and burgers, nice people behind the counter and exceptional cheese fries, and we’ve been patronizing it exclusively for a good 10 years.
Meanwhile, in a bucolic suburb of Houston, the Hubners were looking for a change. Bernie worked as an oil and gas consultant. Peggy was a high school counselor. They lived in Woodland, a place where “women put on full makeup to go to the mailbox.”
Peggy found the Lewis Sweet Shop listed for sale on the Internet. She sent someone to check the place out. He reported back that she was out of her mind. So they bought it.
The Hubners had their work cut out for them. They were moving to a tiny mountain town and taking over a local institution, albeit one that had not fared well over the years. “It was filthy,” Peggy says in a whisper. But they saw potential to create something beyond a hot-dog-and-malt stop for day- trippers: real community.
Fresh paint and a good scrubbing inside and out was just the beginning of the transformation. You walk in now to a bright and inviting space. Art from locals is available for purchase, or you can make your own with crayons and newsprint while you wait for your food. There’s a chess board and a lending library, and barbecue on weekends.
Fall festival
This fall, Peggy has organized a festival that involves two contests: scarecrows and homemade pie. Someone from town volunteered to bring a 200-
year-old apple press and there will be cider from local apples, music from local musicians, homemade pie for a buck, turkey legs and sausage on a stick Oct. 28 from 4 to 8 p.m.
“I’m determined to make things happen,” she said. “We have a lot of ideas.”
I would never have known about any of this had we not taken my son Mark to Camp Chief Ouray near Granby.
We were heading home: my current husband, Doug; my ex-husband, Dave; my daughter Sara; and my ex-husband’s dog. This is how we do things. Nobody wants to miss the big moments in the kids’ lives, so we all pile into Dave’s minivan and my current and ex-spouses make small talk as we drive. And yes, I know how lucky I am.
“Does anybody want a malt?” I asked, and the next thing I know we’re parked in front of Lewis Sweet Shop – of course, because Dave was driving.
And we all pile into the Sweet Shop, feeling awkward, until Peggy comes sailing out from behind the counter, full of welcomes. She waits on Sara at the candy counter, full of handmade treats like fudge, chocolate-covered pretzels and candy deviled eggs. She slips some extra licorice-flavored saltwater taffy into a bag when Sara tells her, “My stepdad likes these.” She tells me how sweet and smart my daughter is, which is all true.
She makes a “dog sundae” for Misty and takes her picture as she slurps it up.
She hands us a Sharpie and has us sign the wall. I sign, “Lisa and Dave, Ride the Rockies, 1988.” Sara signs, “Sara, 2006.”
Meanwhile, Bernie in his tie- dye makes the most enormous chocolate shakes.
During the conversation that ensues, I tell her about this column and we get to talking about rhubarb and the rest is history, at least in Empire.
I’m pleased because these kinds of human connections are why I write this stuff.
She doesn’t think her current career as a restaurant owner is far from her old one as a counselor. “The whole thing is people talking to people,” she says. “We have felt welcomed. It’s a wonderful town full of talented people. They just have forgotten that they’re talented.”
Lisa Everitt is a freelance writer who lives in Arvada. Contact her at lisaeveritt@comcast.net.
The details
Lewis Sweet Shop is at 208 E. Park Ave. (U.S. 40) in Empire. Visit lewissweetshop.com or call 303- 569-2379.
The First Annual Empire Fall Festival and Scarecrow Festival takes place Oct. 28. Scarecrows will be on display along U.S. 40 starting Oct. 23; town residents get to vote for their favorites, and the winner will be announced at Town Hall at 4 p.m. All are welcome for pumpkin carving from 2 to 4 p.m. and a pie social from 4 to 6 p.m. Homemade pies will be sold for $1 a slice to benefit the Empire Children’s Holiday Fund. Call the Sweet Shop for details.
