Restaurant Neighbor Award

Five years ago, I was still working for Jake's Truck Stop. I was aware that their was an offer on the business but was being told that it would never happen. With that knowledge, however, I was keeping my eyes open trying to be prepared just in case it did. I often felt back then that I was at the end of a dead end job where I had advanced myself to the highest level possible but that level was not enough to insure Judy and I with a needed future retirement. Try as I may, I could not imagine what was to happen in the coming months let alone years.

Now, less than five years later, I am not only in the position of owning the business that I loved back then but now we have received our second major award in less than two months. The Oregon Restaurant Association's Restaurant Neighbor Award for small business. If you follow that link, it will take you to the press release recently given on the ORA site.

I am not sure who nominated us, but it was first brought to my attention by the area rep for the association a few weeks ago. She asked me to submit some of the various community support that Jake's has done in the past year. I agreed and submitted it and was soon followed up with a telephone from some one within their staff. I didn't give either of those communications much thought and was surprised to receive a letter last week from them.

In the letter, it said that we had won one of the winners of awards from Oregon but not what in particular that we had won. As I read the letter, I was confused as to whether their were many award winners or just one. I read the letter a couple more times and then did some investigation on the computer of previous years and realized that we must have won for one of the categories. The recent press release now clears out just which one.

We will be honored at the awards ceremony at the yearly convention held in Sunriver in late September. But even more exciting is that we are now in the running for the national award that will be given in Washington DC a week prior to. All of the various state winners will be listed in a directory of sorts highlighting all of the winners.

I am truly flattered by this attention and humbled by the thoughts of all of the various people that have had a part in the takeover, subsequent move, and advancement of Jake's in it's present spot. I am truly thankful for each and every one of them, for the various friends that I have met and made in those five years, and for the community that not only helped Jake's survive but helped it flourish in what had been considered the worst location in town.