Twin Peaks is a show about murder, though some would say it’s mostly about aesthetics and coffee. This is why the place where that coffee (and cherry pie) came from is so important fans are doing their best to save the real-life diner where the show filmed.
The Double R Diner from Twin Peaks is a real place in Washington, one that was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic just like any other place of business. Grub Street talked to the owners of the diner, actually called the Twede’s Cafe in North Bend, Washington. As it turns out, Rachel Bennet and her husband, Max Spears, finished their purchase of the diner in late February, weeks before Washington shut down to a rapidly-expanding COVID-19 pandemic.
The interview has lots of details about how the two eventually watched the show and wanted to own an important part of its history. It also details the slight changes they’ve made to the diner to pay homage to it filming there. And despite the rough start to their ownership, they said fans are doing their best to keep the takeout orders coming to keep it afloat while the pandemic continues.
When it was takeout only, we were not making money at all. We would’ve lost a lot of money because we were keeping our staff on, but we did get one of the PPP loans. The one we applied for was for over $100,000. That was huge for us, in that we didn’t have to think about our sales for two months, which was most of when we were takeout only. It allowed us to pay everybody as if we were open for regular hours. The sales we were doing were just paying for the food we were buying and nothing else.
We keep saying to ourselves how lucky we are that this is the restaurant that we bought because there are so many people who care about it, want to see it continue, and have embraced us as owners.
The full piece has some really fun photos — including one of a wall of Twin Peaks memorabilia and the changes they’ve made since buying the place. As it turns out, Bennet grew up in the town where the show was filmed but it took her a while to get through Twin Peaks and fall in love, which as it turns out is a fairly common thing for the cult classic. Here’s hoping Twede’s Cafe keeps serving up the coffee and pie long after all this is over and fans of the show can safely pay it a visit.
[via Grub Street]