SILVANA — Willow &Jim’s Country Cafe is back.
The popular restaurant that attracts diners from northwestern Washington and lower British Columbia has re-opened in Silvana after being demolished and rebuilt over the past year.
The brick building that had housed the business since 1951, through five owners, has been replaced by a new “old” early 1900s-style gray-and-white structure more in keeping with older downtown structures.
Its modern enhancements — new flooring, lighting and kitchen equipment — are overshadowed by the popular old-time styling, mismatched tablecloths, table and chairs and the down-home welcoming atmosphere that made the original cafe so popular for decades.
Willow Payne, who owns the business with her husband, Jim, said the restaurant at 1420 Pioneer Highway still has its same popular menu, pie choices that range from apple and blackberry to banana cream and many other flavors, friendly service and an eclectic environment.
“It’s still got that Silvana country charm,” she said, “but with a freshened old-style look. Coast Construction Group in Arlington did a terrific job of blending old and new.”
One thing the cafe still has is a steady flow of people all day long. One thing it won’t have is up to 13 inches of water in the restaurant during flood times.
“The building used to have a basement,” Jim Payne said, “It always filled up during flooding and rose into the restaurant because we’re in the Stillaguamish River flood zone.
“Now we have a solid foundation that keeps us dry well above the highest record flood levels. We had to either rebuild or move on. The new flooring also is easy to clean. We often get farmers and others tracking in mud. We want them to feel comfortable with that and now it’s easier for us to clean.”
Jim Payne cooked for years at Arlington’s popular Blue Bird Cafe, before his and his wife the Silvana restaurant nearly 15 years ago.
They’ve built the business into one of the area’s most popular cafes. With plenty of word-of-mouth promotion and a Facebook web site that has more than 800 “likes” from satisfied customers, Willow &Jim’s Country Cafe has a loyal following that continues to grow.
The cafe features special “bikers’ breakfast” and also holds an annual Fourth of July fundraising day for the Silvana Fire Department.
Both cooks and waitresses dedicate a free day of work to raise money for the community’s firefighters, hitting more than $3,000 in one recent year. This year’s event will mark the cafe’s 15th firefighter’s event.
“They’re a great bunch of people and we all depend on them not only fire protection but for pumping out buildings when they’re flooded and other community services,” Willow Payne said.
The new cafe building fits in well in the community, looking like a business in front and a large style home in the back, which it will soon become.
“The upstairs space is empty now but we’ll be making our home there,” Jim said. “We’ve lived on Camano Island for 25 years and it’s a 40-minute drive to the cafe.”
Silvana is less thriving than when it was a big agricultural center, but it continues to draw people to the cafe, the popular Silvana Meats, an antique store and other attractions in its small business district on Pioneer Highway, only two miles west of I-5 at the Arlington exit.
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