WILLISTON, N.D. (AP) - Remember when you could get a $3 hamburger, made from local beef, served at a quintessential U-shaped counter?
You don’t have to think back to pre-boom Williston, just remember the last time you ordered a burger at the SBA Cafe inside Sitting Bull Auction, the Williston Herald (https://bit.ly/1RKFHOt ) reported.
Jenni Krebsbach, head chef and owner of the SBA Cafe, gets behind the grill each day to fire up home cooked meals while her daughter and business partner, Kortni Nelson, dutifully attends to customers.
Harkening back to a time when food didn’t spike with oil prices, they serve a steady clientele of area laborers, farmers, and ranchers. When there is a sale, the table fills with Stetson hats and billed caps bearing local ranch names.
Formerly home to Mississippi BBQ, Krebsbach opened the cafe in January and has seen a steady stream of hungry patrons. “I don’t like going somewhere and paying an astronomical amount, and I don’t think anyone else does either,” Krebsbach said. “For just a plain old hamburger, $3 is plenty; not everybody is rich.”
There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but an affordable one can be found if you look in the right places. Glen Clark, brand Inspector for the North Dakota Stockman’s Association, sees the positive impact of pricing at the cafe not just for himself but for other ranchers as well. “I can afford to eat lunch now! It is good, I gotta admit,” Clark said. “We’re ranchers, we don’t make oilfield money. Ninety percent of your ranchers own the top land but they don’t own the minerals. This place is refreshing.”
A resident of Williston for over 30 years, Krebsbach has noticed what else makes her customers happy and has tried to do just that. “We’ve got guys that come in here every day,” Krebsbach said. “They pretty much tell me what they want to eat the next day and I make it for them. They love meatloaf!”
Food by popular request isn’t something that’s found too often, but Krebsbach is able to accommodate this by buying local ingredients and always making food from scratch. The unique configuration of the cafe also has something to do with it.
The capacity cafe at present seats a relatively small amount of people. “You can be so personal with everybody. I only seat 19,” Krebsbach said. “But soon it will be 25. We’re putting in a booth in the corner.”
The relationship of the cafe to the auction house is a perfect example of supply and demand in the restaurant world. Auctions take time, and people get hungry. Clark noticed the absence of a particular group of folks before the cafe opened. “The old timers weren’t coming in to eat before,” Clark said. “It hurt the sale.”
But the crowd has returned and Krebsbach finds she can operate effectively when a large cattle sale is in progress.
“Even when we have big sales like 3,000 or 4,000 cattle, we can handle everybody that’s there and our regular customers that come in,” Krebsbach said. “It’s no problem. Everybody knows we can only seat so many, so they wait.”
Sale days may require some patience on the part of customers, but Krebsbach has been busy with improvements. Along with upgrading the decor, she’s changed out the hard wooden barstools for comfortable high-backed chairs and made other changes as she saw necessary.
“I put the pop machine in,” Krebsbach said. “They also didn’t take credit cards before so I decide I’d take credit cards. When I walk in a place, I want to be comfortable, so when my customers walk in I want them to be comfortable.”
Without a major overhaul, she has been able to keep prices low and the business going. “We’re trying to do everything on a budget. And it’s working so far,” Krebsbach said. “I’m not here to get rich. I like to make people happy. I like to cook, and I like to socialize. It gives me something to do.”
There will be a small break coming up in the daily cooking and socializing for Krebsbach. The cafe will close at the the end of April and reopen Sept. 1.
Krebsbach is confident that her regulars will return and always appreciates seeing new faces at her counter.
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Information from: Williston Herald, https://www.willistonherald.com
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