Last call for Rick’s Place & Coffee Shop

Rick’s Place & Coffee Shop is closing after a 30-year run in downtown Monmouth. Stock photo.

A landmark business is closing its doors after almost 30 years in downtown Monmouth.

Yes, Rick’s Place & Coffee Shop will no longer be quenching thirst, satisfying appetites and hosting morning chats come the end of January.

The coffee shop “has been a fixture on Main Street for 29 years and 11 months, and the warm smiles, great beverages and sandwiches (from owner Rick Gydesen) will be sorely missed,” said Miriam Haugen, vice president, Monmouth Business Association.

This is the second longtime Monmouth business to close since summer. Haugens Galleri and Portrait Studio, a Main Street mainstay for 45 years, also closed. Owners Miriam and Neil Haugen moved their studio to a different site.

Rick’s Place is forging a similar path. It will continue to cater events, such as the monthly Polk County Flea Market, at the fairgrounds. But there won’t be a brick-and-mortar locale for his customers.

Ray Lindley owns University Barber Shop, which is next door to Rick’s Place. He said Gydesen’s compassion for others and commitment to community will be missed.

“I’ve been here for 28 years and Rick’s been here for 30 years. He’s been a great neighbor,” Lindley said. “I had a real tough last year in this community, and he came to my rescue. He helps others as well. He’s like, if you’re hungry, come in, I’ll feed you. So I thought, you know, that’s why we’re going to start a little GoFundMe account for Rick and (wife) Mary; it’s called a farewell appreciation fund.”

The goal is to raise at least $2,000.

“We’re just  trying to raise a little bit of funds so where (they) might have a little time to gather their thoughts (given) what just happened, you know,” Lindley said. “He wasn’t really planning on quitting this soon, just circumstances beyond his control.”

The decision to close was a difficult one for the Gydesens. They wanted to keep Rick’s Place open at least another year. But rising operational costs, increased competition from other restaurants, and declining student enrollment at Western Oregon forced their hand.

Not that they haven’t tried to counter these challenges. For example, Rick’s Place once featured longer hours designed to draw in a later crowd. But that didn’t work out. Ten years ago they stopped hiring employees, thus eliminating one significant expenditure altogether, and thereby making theirs a true mom-and-pop operation.

“So it was just Mary and me” Rick said, “and if we couldn’t meet the needs of the people, we just explained to them that there are just the two of us. If you can’t wait for your order or whatever, we hope to see you next time. But we’ve never had to do that.”

The Gydesens’ business ties to the area date back 33 years. They owned the Independence Coffee Company from 1991-97. Then purchased Coffee Escape in Monmouth in 1995. There was a two-year overlap when they owned coffee shops in both cities.

Under their ownership, the newly christened Rick’s Place “became the place to go in Monmouth. And since the good old days of March of ’95, we’ve seen more than 10 coffee shops come and go in this town, and we’ve outlasted every single one of them,” Rick said, “until maybe this year.”

The couple’s legacy is secure.

“Rick was a key person at the start of the Monmouth Merchants Association, which became the Monmouth Business Association. Without his leadership, we might not have Monmouth's Music in the Park,” Miriam said. “In the early days, Rick was the person lining up bands for Music in the Park, when local bands played in the gazebo.”

One of the bands Rick signed years ago was the Severin Sisters. He had heard good things about their performances at Guthrie Park in Dallas. They continue to perform here each summer.

An interesting side note, Rick’s Place one featured weekly musical performances.

“They played every Thursday night. It was kind of a practice session for them, for their Friday, Saturday and sometimes Sunday events that they did,” Rick said of the musicians.

One performer was David Metzger, later to become a famous composer, arranger and producer in Hollywood and on Broadway. He is best known for his collaborations with Disney Animation.

“I don’t really have a lot of stories to tell, sadly, as it was a long time ago,” Metzger said of those early appearances. “I think it must have been in the 90’s that I played there a couple of months, once a week, as part of a jazz trio.”

Metzger was on bass, Ramsey Embick was on piano and Mark Weisgram was on drums.

“Mark was the guy who set up the connection at Rick’s, as I recall, and Ramsey was a smokin’ hot player who grew up in Salem, but was living in Portland at the time,” Metzger said. “About the most I remember was that it was a fun place to play, great vibe, and that we were allowed to play anything we wanted.”

The trio came together after Metzger returned to Oregon from southern California. He was born and raised in Corvallis.

“I was trying to meet people in Salem, to play and connect with. At that point I had no idea that my film and Broadway writing career was going to take off and be what it turned out to be,” Metzger said. “So Rick’s supplied a great venue for local musicians to play at, a very important outlet for live music.”

For 10 years, Rick and Mary were also instrumental (no pun intended) in organizing the summer concert and outdoor movies series in Independence.

But first, Gydesen was a merchandiser, selling the Procter & Gamble product line. Two customers, a young couple, were former missionaries connected to the people of Vera Cruz, Mexico.

“So when (the couple) came home, they opened a coffee shop. They bought a roaster from the people down there, in Vera Cruz, had it shipped up. And they’d been buying Vera Cruz region coffee from the Indians there,” said Rick. “So they were helping them by buying their coffee.”

When the couple decided to sell the coffee shop, they didn’t have to look too far for new owners. Rick and Mary bought it in October 1991.

“We roasted our own coffee, like they had been. We expanded our retail efforts. We carried gift items. Mary was really good about that area,” Rick said.

They closed Independence Coffee Company in 1997.

“We tried to move the roaster over here to Monmouth, but codes and zones were such that we couldn’t do it in the downtown area,” Rick said. "Rather than having to rent two different facilities, we just closed the roaster.”

They started buying from a local coffee entrepreneur.

“We had a lot of green beans from when we were roasting. So I said, here’s what I’ve created for our blend, and he said okay. So they sampled it, tasted it, and roasted it. All he would tell me is that he tweaked it. He tweaked the roast,” Rick said. "So that’s kind of the story of how we got Rick’s place going.”