By ED MERRIMAN

Baker City Herald

Mad Matilda’s coffee house and restaurant is closing Saturday after six years on Main Street, leaving many of owner Ann Bryan’s loyal customers lamenting the loss of their favorite gathering spot.

“There’s absolutely nothing as delicious and cozy as drinking a hot cup of coffee and enjoying intelligent conversation at Mad Matilda’s,” said Jude McElroy, a regular at the restaurant. “I am just in love with it.”

McElroy said she felt as if she’d found her true home town the first time she visited Baker City with her son about three years ago.

McElroy, who retired after running a bakery in Olympia, Wash., with her husband for many years, has lived in Baker City about 2.5 years.

Spending mornings at Mad Matilda’s, 1917 Main St., is among her favorite activities.

“One day I was sitting here reading Plato, and a young woman from

Portland came in and sat down and we had a nice conversation about

philosophy,” McElroy said. “I like spontaneous conversations like that.”

About once a week, McElroy said she also looks forward to philosophical

and theological discussions with a pair of pastors who come into Mad

Matilda’s.

“We’ve had some wonderful, fulfilling conversations,” she said.

Rich Berg and Kelsey Eastman came to Baker City from McMinnville for

the annual Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally about three years ago,

discovered Mad Matilda’s, fell in love with the town and people, and

decided to make this their home.

“We fell in love with Baker City, and Mad Matilda’s has been a huge part of it,” Berg said.

“There is a vibe at Mad Matilda’s,” Eastman said. “We sit and mull

things over with like-minded people, but there are a lot of different

opinions around the table that make for stimulating and interesting

conversations.”

Carolyn Kulog, an owner of Betty’s Books, a few blocks south on Main

Street, was having coffee in Mad Matilda’s Thursday morning with her

friends, Donna and Mike Higgins of Halfway.

Kulog and Donna Higgins said they appreciate the contributions and

support Ann Bryan and her husband, Andrew, a Baker City Council member,

have made to school programs, community groups and activities over the

years.

“I enjoy the casual atmosphere where you feel like you can visit as long as you like,” Donna Higgins said.

Mike Higgins said his family’s roots in Baker County go back to 1882,

and when he visits Mad Matilda’s he always runs into someone he knows.

He remembered that before the Bryans bought the building and opened Mad

Matilda’s, previous tenants included the Andy’s Shoe Store, the Topaz

Cafe, and Trotter’s Men’s Store, to name a few.

The Bryans have sold their building next to Mad Matilda’s, where Ann

operated Sane Jane’s mercantile, and have a pending sale on the

building that houses Mad Matilda’s.

She said that pending sale is for the building only, but not the

business or the Mad Matilda’s name, so there’s a possibility that the

business might re-emerge at some point in a smaller location.

“We will see what the future holds,” Ann Bryan said.

In the meantime, Saturday will be the final business day for Mad Matilda’s.

Ann Bryan said everyone is invited to a customer appreciation party on

Thursday, June 10, starting at 5:30 p.m. Food and drinks will be served.

“I would just like to thank all the people who have been so tried and

true through all of the political turmoil and everything,” Bryan said.

“I have made some wonderful friends, and to me that is the most

important in the long run.

“This is a place where people come and stand by the kitchen and tell me

their stories. They’re like family,” Bryan said. “People tell me what

they have enjoyed the most is it’s a warm and comfortable setting.”

Bryan said she couldn’t have run the business, including many hours

cooking the food, making coffee drinks, waiting on customers and

balanced work with her personal life without the help of her parents,

John and Liz Heriza, her husband, Andrew, daughter Josie, and their

wonderful employees.

“I felt really lucky to have such great people working for me,” Bryan

said. “I have become friends with many of them, and that means a lot to

me.”

Her employees agree.

“I think Ann and Andrew have succeeded in creating a family with the

people who work here and have come in here,” said Lindsay Whitney, who

cooks and makes coffee and other drinks at Mad Matilda’s.

Whitney has experience as a tattoo artist in Idaho and she plans to work in that field when she gets her Oregon license.