TIETON, Wash. — Rumors have been flying around about long-time eatery Vickie’s Tieton Cafe closing for good.
That’s news to owner Victoria Ennis.
“I did not close for good,” Ennis, 89, told me on the phone Tuesday.
Turns out that Ennis has low-grade leukemia. She closed the restaurant for the rest of this month so she could get treated.
Her doctor said she’s doing well and Ennis believes if her health holds up she can reopen the restaurant at 802 Wisconsin Ave. by the first week of next month, or even sooner. “I just hope I can go do it,” she said.
But she is looking into options if her health fails, including hiring someone to run the restaurant under her supervision or putting the business up for sale.
I asked Ennis why she wanted to keep going with her ongoing health issues.
“Because it’s a way of life for me,” she said. “I don’t like being by myself or being lonely.”
Indeed, Ennis worked at the cafe when it was under a different owner before reopening it as Vickie’s Tieton Cafe in 1967.