BREAKING NEWS … The Nevada Starbuck’s Drive-In will rebuild!
“We’ve let so many things go by the wayside – we’ve let our newspaper go, we’ve let other things go… But a fire on some random Tuesday in June isn’t going to be the end of Starbuck’s,” declared Nevada Mayor Ryan Condon this morning (July 2), less than 48 hours after a fire destroyed Nevada’s iconic restaurant along the Lincoln Highway.
In a meeting that included Starbuck’s current owner, Anna Sayre; Starbuck’s business manager, Evelyn Yoder; Nevada City Administrator Jordan Cook, and Mayor Condon, Cook explained that a few City leaders came together quickly and are proposing to utilize money from the City’s “demolition fund” to pay for demolition of the current building so that the iconic community treasure can be rebuilt on the property where it’s been doing business for 70 years. (The demolition fund in the City budget holds proceeds generated when a property is condemned and the City later sells the property.)
As for funding a new building, Mayor Condon is confident of support. “The community, in cooperation with some generous private donors, is going to help rebuild Starbuck’s. And I’m certain that many in the community will get behind the fund-raising effort to rebuild. The more who contribute to the fund, the sooner Starbuck’s will be back in business.” Already, a 3D design professional has agreed to donate services to draw up new building plans. It’s hoped other professionals will generously donate services as well.
Presently, community leaders are looking for an entity to hold donations for the rebuild.
Sayre, who was with previous owner Shelley Tiffany since 2005 and married her in 2017, and Yoder, who worked at the restaurant during her teen years, were emotional as they listened.
“I want to make it clear that if everybody here was not involved like they are, we would not be able to do this,” Sayre stated.
“I want people to understand the insurance situation,” Yoder said, and with a nod from Sayre she explained it in detail:
“The building was not insured. The town needs to know this. The back story is important. Shelley (who purchased the business in 2016 from John Hargis) needed to get the business paid off before she could afford to replace the roof and siding, which was in dire need of replacement. She planned to make those improvements this season. We got the business paid off last August; I remember writing that last check. Finally, we were looking to get a loan to start building improvements, and then, Shelley died on Oct. 16, and we were in probate. Probate attorneys told us we could not make any changes to the building that would alter its value, and replacing siding and roofing would have altered it. When insurance agents came to evaluate the property this spring, they told us it needed a new roof over the front section and new siding, or we could not insure it. So, we were in the middle of a catch-22.”
“We were so close to getting it done and fixed,” said Sayre.
Yoder continued: “We weren’t just neglecting the building. Shelley had a plan and was trying to keep things running. When you have one big payment, and you’re not making a lot of money in the restaurant business, you have to wait to do things. We had all the other necessary types of insurance for employees and the business, but there is no insurance money coming for the building.”
The Starbuck’s building was a service station when Starbuck’s Drive-In founder Darrell Starbuck decided to start selling food in 1956. His wife Jean told the Nevada Journal, when interviewed in 2009, that her husband was worried about income for their family and felt the filling station alone wasn’t cutting it. Friends recommended he sell hotdogs from the station. He cut two windows out of the front of the building and changed the business into a drive-in restaurant, selling a lot more than hot dogs!
Over the years, and through the ownership of Starbuck and later Hargis, updates were made to the drive-in, including the addition of indoor seating. Sayre wants the new building to also have an indoor seating area, and she’d like to have more outdoor seating.
As for the look of a new building, everyone agrees that it doesn’t have to look exactly like the building that will be demolished, but they hope to have some elements from the historic business. What is most important is that it’s at the same location, along the historic Lincoln-Jefferson Highway, and has the same great food and ice cream that everyone has come to love through the years.
RAGBRAI coming through Nevada on July 22 is what the Mayor sees as a perfect opportunity to begin major fundraising. Along with Main Street Nevada, he’s helping get Sayre and Yoder set up to do a fundraiser for the restaurant, possibly selling sandwiches! Watch for a special Starbuck’s booth in the downtown area on July 22!
For the many who want to help contribute to rebuilding Starbucks, once an entity has been found to hold donations, the City will release information on how and where to donate. We hope to also have that information in the August issue of Our Nevada magazine.
Sayre said what this community is doing would mean the world to Shelley. “Shelly worked for the previous owner and her mother worked for Darrell. There’s a long history for her, and we want to keep this going.”
Yoder agreed. “I want to keep Darrell Starbuck’s legacy alive and Shelley Tiffany’s legacy alive. It was Shelley’s dream to keep Darrell’s dream going, so now that’s our dream.”
–Written by Marlys Barker, City of Nevada