Station Reborn in Towanda’s Heart  
And Café Is In Its Heart Of Hearts
By BARBARA COYLE

Trains hold a special place in the imagination of many Americans. For them, the railroad spells history, romance, or a longing for the good old days. In which case, a refurbished train station is a cause for celebration. If you come to Towanda, Pennsylvania, and visit the renovated Washington Street Station, you’ll see why so many history buffs are in love with the era when railroads ruled.

A rust-colored baggage car on a rail spur behind the station serves as a reminder of days when trains ran regularly along the Susquehanna River and commerce and travel were supported by rail. But the station, built as a freight depot in the late 1800s, saw its last freight train stop there in 1976. The building, however, has been restored to its former glory, courtesy of the Bradford County Regional Arts Council, which bought it in 2004. It is now home to the Pennsylvania North Country Artisan Center and Store and to the Weigh Station Café and Restaurant, which Barb Keeney and Karen Parkhurst opened in April 2006.

So park your car, climb up to the deck, take a good look at the river flowing by, and then open the café’s door. You just might find yourself stepping back to the future.

From the Wyalusing area, Barb and Karen, longtime friends and co-workers, are smart, funny, ambitious, hardworking women. You can tell they have known each other for a long time by listening to them finish each other’s sentences. They are self-taught in the restaurant business, one of the hardest schools there is, and they describe the Weigh Station as the fruition of a shared vision about a different, innovative kind of restaurant. They feel the station’s aesthetics and its setting on the Susquehanna River make the café a splendid dining experience.

“We probably have the only outdoor eating establishment in the whole county,” says Barb. “Coming here is like a vacation for our customers. The river is very undeveloped in this area. The beauty of it from our deck is astounding.”

Barb, a well-known area businesswoman, previously owned the Wyalusing Hotel, and her résumé includes twenty-five years in the business, including owning the former Friedenshutten Restaurant. She remembers fondly a time when local restaurants were the place to go and socialize before chain restaurants arrived on the scene. Karen worked with Barb at the Wyalusing Hotel. When the hotel was sold, they went their separate ways and both admit to missing the customers and the social outlet they experienced there. When the opportunity to open the café presented itself, their partnership was renewed.

Barb and Karen have worked to create a dining experience that showcases the best of what this region has to offer, and both wanted the restaurant to have a focus on local products and people. They sought out local chefs who would enhance their philosophy. Two young chefs, David Patrick and Ruth Blaine, who had left the area to be trained at culinary institutes in New England and Chicago, joined the team early on and brought innovative ideas and fresh, creative menus to the restaurant. They have since moved on but their menus and recipes continue to be highlighted today. Items such as the café’s signature dish—Tuscan-chicken, walnut-pesto panini, and heirloom purple-fingerling potato salads—started to pop up on the whiteboard menu that covers half the wall in the kitchen. Barb and Karen are committed to using not only local chefs and staff, but also the freshest local food and beverages they can find.

“We make everything fresh,” says Barb. “We make all our own soups and sauces; we never use canned mushrooms; we make our own salad dressings and deli salads. Nothing goes from the freezer to the fryer here. It’s more work up front but it is worth it for the taste.”

All pastries and bread are baked locally and their refrigerator case holds Pennsylvania beers and wine from some of the newer local wineries such as Antler Ridge, Pickering and Hidden Creek. The pair  have witnessed a tremendous response from their customers to their emphasis on local wines and are awaiting the opening of Wyalusing’s Grovedale Winery this season.

They have also benefited from the Towanda Farmers Market, a “grower-only” market that is on site from May to October. It is not unusual for the beets in the red-beet salad to have been grown by one of the market’s vendors. Karen and Barb, delighted the market is based at the station, say it is a mutually beneficial relationship. It reinforces their commitment to the “Buy Fresh, Buy Local” movement, and area farms such as Willianna, Hale, and BackAchers provide salad greens, fresh fruits, herbs, and vegetables. In the spring, they highlight ricotta-cheese blintzes from Inn To The Seasons, a goat dairy with a licensed kitchen, run by farmers-market vendor Bernard Jurkowski. Paired with fresh local strawberries, it’s a seasonal specialty.

This go-local philosophy is not simply about food; the Weigh Station does its best to spotlight area musicians and artists. Last year, they opened the deck on Friday nights for live music featuring regional favorites Cornpone Sally and Bon Joni. Also, musicians originally from the area were enticed to come back and play, and recent Top Fifty American Idol winner Kurtis Parks and folksinger Lisa Bodner have returned to their roots. On Wednesday nights, Tom LeFever and Scott Smith run an open-mike night. Barb and Karen say you never know who’ll perform. Towanda High soccer coach Jamie Castillo and his brother showed up one night and surprised the crowd with a South American harp-and-guitar concert. Later, the audience learned that the duo had played at Carnegie Hall, not once but twice. A wall covered with vintage musical instruments and salutations of visitors from England, Ecuador, France, Germany, Taiwan, Scotland, and Canada left for Towanda’s good people is a testament to how small our world has become.

Every two months, a different area artist’s work is exhibited, and Janice McConnell and Anna Marie Zettlemoyer from Towanda,  Brian Keeler from Wyalusing, and Brad Marple from Warren Center, have all been showcased. This connection with local musicians and artists as well as farmers and growers demonstrates the full-circle commitment Karen and Barb have made to promote the best this area has to offer.

They have shown there can be so much more to an evening out than a fast-food drive through. On any day of the week, business people meet here over coffee, students work on their laptops—courtesy of the free wireless connection—and friends catch up with each other over lunch or dinner. You might have to pinch yourself to make sure that you are not dreaming. It doesn’t get much better or more local. than this.

The Weigh Station Café

Where: 1 Washington Street, Towanda, Pennsylvania
Open: Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Extras: smoke-free environment; available for private parties
Information: (570) 265-2233

Barbara Coyle is a first-time contributor to Mountain Home magazine.