A welcoming country oasis fosters community, one home-cooked meal at a time

In the musical "Oklahoma," one of the questions it tries to help answer is the age-old dilemma of whether or not the farmer and the cowman can be friends. In the song "The Farmer and the Cowman," the light-hearted melody and lyrics make the feud between the farmer and cowman seem silly, pointing out that "territory folks should stick together."

Sunnnybrook Cafe sits close to, if not on, the intersection of farming and cowman territories in rural Nebraska. Its actual address is Ewing, but the cafe is nine and three-quarter miles straight south of Ewing, 10 miles southwest of Clearwater and some 25 to 30 miles from Elgin or Bartlett.

Famous visitors like Jon Vanderford and Brad Anderson from 10/11's "Pure Nebraska," as well as a humble mother of one of the wind turbine workers, who brought a carload from Iowa, come to experience, not only the home-cooked meals sisters Elaine Kimes and Mary Alice Dwyer make, but also to experience the sense of community and the cafe's unique location on the edge of a cornfield.

But it's not for the visitors or the notoriety of the location of the cafe that the sisters have continued to serve home-cooked meals.

"We are here for the neighbors," said Kimes. And Dwyer continued, making the comment that they want the experience to be like coming home for their customers.

Through the past 100 years, the old schoolhouse and the boundaries around it have shifted and evolved to fit with the times. The lines that define a neighbor as only farmer or only cowman are more blurred. More land has been turned to farm ground with central irrigation. More fences have been put in not only to keep cattle from roaming in a cornfield, but also to make divisions visible as families split land up or sell in hard times. The school itself was closed and landowners in its district had to make decisions of where to allocate their taxes.

The building, like so many old one- and two-roomed country schools, stood empty. Until brothers Jim Funk and Ron Funk talked their sisters into providing meals for neighboring farmers and ranchers who were all in the same situation: No where to eat a good lunch without having to drive a great distance to and from town. Many wives work outside the home or work hand-in-hand with their husbands on the farm or ranch. Eating pre-packaged meals wasn't as nutritious as a home-cooked meal and eating alone made one feel isolated.

Thus began the conception of the idea of converting Sunnybrook Social Hall to Sunnybrook Cafe.

"Our brothers made us," joked Dwyer. And then Kimes chimed in, "They asked us over and over if we wouldn't just try it. Just a sandwich. And maybe a salad. And a little cookie."

So, since 2012, the sisters have been running Sunnybrook Cafe, which opens its doors in the spring when farmers head to the fields and closes in the fall at the end of harvest. The sisters serve one meal a day, Monday through Friday, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., but their days start at 6:30 a.m., each day.

Come lunch time, neighbors meander by the cafe during their daily work, sometimes coming in their work clothes. It is a bit of a tradition for Elaine to let newcomers know that the regulars, who are often a bit rowdier, sit on one side of the cafe, and that if they want to visit and not be interrupted, they should sit on the other side.

"It can get loud in here. There is a lot of bantering and joking," remarked Kimes. "They love to give each other grief and ask each other if all the other does is sit around and eat here or something like, you working today?"

"Or, there are times when there might be disagreements or differences in opinion, but with time, everyone cools down and eventually comes back," noted Dwyer, with a smile and an all-knowing nod from Kimes.

But the ladies serve them all a warm home-cooked meal with a good-sized portion of meat along with a vegetable, salad, potato, bun, and a good assortment of desserts. And they all come back.

Regulars and outsiders alike feel at home at Sunnybrook.

"Our regulars have to be forgiving especially when they show up and we don't have everything out. They just help out. Like, if we forgot to get the salad bowls out or something, they know where to grab them and put them out," said Dwyer.

"Our neighbors are so good to us," said Kimes. "We have people ask to help us. Neighbors show up just to help wash dishes, especially on days like Wednesdays, which is fried chicken day."

Tom Kimes, Elaine's husband, helps out, wrapping plastic silverware in a napkin.

"I have an interesting statistic to share," supplied Tom. "To date, I've wrapped 22,000 silverware packets."

And during garden season, neighbors help supply the sisters with extra produce, like cucumbers and squash to help round out the nutritious home-cooked meals.

The sisters heard the pleas of their brothers and provided a much needed service to local neighbors. Cost? Time and energy at a time in their lives when they should be relaxing and enjoying the fruits of their hard work.

When asked what the future holds for Sunnybrook, the sisters gently looked at each other and one of them admitted, "We just take one day at a time." For now, Kimes said, "When I'm working here, I forget I'm tired!"

Both sisters admitted that running Sunnybrook isn't something they could have ever lived off of financially, but they both see the good that it does for their neighbors, helping the territory folks stick together.