“This place is our oasis,” says Darwin Baldridge a Garber area resident, as he leaves the Anchor Inn in Garber. I ask, “What do mean.” He answers, “Well if it weren’t for Boon and the Anchor Inn we wouldn’t have anything.” Darwin was referring to the fact, from Garber to any other restaurant or bar is more than a 15-mile drive.
A native of Thailand, Boonraksa Menge is the owner of the Anchor Inn, in Garber and has been for the past ten years. The Anchor Inn appropriately names the only eating establishment in this tiny little town. It is the anchor for the town and Boon is the living anchor for this restaurant and bar business. If you walk into the Anchor Inn while Boon is there, you instantly know you are in good hands.
This 5’ foot, small framed but husky voiced mother of three and grandmother of three knows her business. Everyone who works at the Anchor Inn loves and respects her. She is respected for her great cooking ability, for being a very loving and loyal mother and her work ethic. She seems to always be planning and often thinking out loud. For example, she might be taking a customer’s order and then at the same time remembers out loud she needs to get out the beef roasts for the upcoming Friday night buffet. Just like that she is off to take care of the beef roasts.
The Anchor Inn is an extremely clean, casual dining and bar establishment. Boon opens her restaurant at 10 am. She serves breakfast all day long. Each day a daily noon special and evening special is offered. The Anchor is known for the burgers, Taco Night and an awesome oriental buffet served on the second Thursday evening of each month.
Patrons can use one of the two front entrances, one door enters the friendly bar and seating area the other into a banquet dining space. The party room seat groups up to 120.
Why is the Anchor Inn so suitably named? Boon has owned this establishment for ten years and she, herself has served as a steady anchor. The best example of this is last year’s devastating floods. Readers are intimate with the destruction the flood of 2004 caused our area but we all know that Elkport and Garber were two towns hardest hit.
The Anchor Inn was completely overcome. The highest water line is marked about four feet above the first level floor. The building was literally full of water. Refrigerators were floating, the pool tables were covered, and in fact the entire bar was under water. Boon lives in the attached apartment in the rear of the restaurant. So while she was evacuated from her home and business and living in a friend’s house on the hill above Garber, she was faced with huge decisions. Should she abandon the Anchor Inn and start fresh on high ground or save the town’s anchor? Two days after the water had reached it’s highest point, knowing she would not be receiving federal aid and she was not protected with flood insurance she thought to herself and said to her boyfriend, Jeff, “Let’s go clean it up.” She made an “anchorous” decision. She did not abandon the Anchor Inn and by not abandoning the Anchor Inn, Garber residents did not abandon Boon.
They began cleaning, actually gutting the building. Today almost, exactly one year later the building appears undamaged. Boon proudly comments, “This time we used our heads,” pointing to the elevated electrical boxes and mentioning the elevated outside central air unit. Boon’s, boyfriend, Jeff Fozbiner and Anchor Inn employee, James Steenhard together with crews that varied in size worked for months to restore the restaurant. Starting by hanging new drywall and trim and painting. Next they built a completely new bar. Brand new kitchen equipment is housed in the intimate kitchen space. A new juke box hangs on the wall above the high water mark and the pool tables have been refelted. The restoration took nearly four months. “We reopened on September eleventh 2004. We turned a bad luck (day) into good luck,” comments a smiling Boon.
As we sat in the bar area after a busy lunch hour, Boon tells of her sanguine feelings for Thailand. Boon has been a citizen of the U.S. for more than twenty years. Her citizen certificate prominently displayed on the restaurant wall proves this. Yet, she misses Thailand and hopes sometime this summer, to return for a visit to her hometown north of Bangkok. She says her Dad, a country doctor, will occasionally ask her to move home. Her parents and grandparents all still live in the same small town. Boon admits to be Americanized and realizes she would probably never permanently move back. Her children need her here and she knows her life is here in Clayton County. When she is not working she loves to bowl, shoot pool and shop. She fondly speaks of all her friends in Garber and in Dubuque, where she lived for twenty years before moving to Garber. She says this part of Iowa sometimes reminds her of her beloved Thailand. Guttenberg especially reminds her of her hometown with the river running along it.
In 1973, Boon was working on an air force base in Bankok where she met her husband Louis Menge. Louis was a chef and they worked together in the mess hall. “He taught me how to cook American food,” she says while she proudly shares pictures of Louis and the Air Force Base Commander. She is very fond of their time in the military. Boon’s mom taught her to prepare Asian dishes. Boon states, “My Mom is a good cook.”
In, 2000 after a long illness Louis passed away. A few years before Louis’ death, the family had moved to Garber to take over the Anchor Inn, for Louis’ sister, Norma Nimmo.
Boon continued running the restaurant and raising her children. By now, her oldest Mary Ann was married and lived in Dubuque but her two sons were in high school at Central. She had to keep running the business.
Last May, things seemed to be going well, the Anchor Inn was enjoying quite a customer base. She laughs a little as she recounts a very ironic situation. A few weeks before the 2004 flood, a friend had offered to sell her flood insurance. She agreed it was a good idea but responded, “Not now, I am too busy. Come back later.” Later happened to be too late, she had sincerely planned to buy the insurance but time had ran out. After the flood her son Tim, a senior at UNI, insisted she buy insurance. Guided by Tim, today, the Anchor Inn is fully insured.
She continues to remember the willingness of people to help during that desperate time. Boon, knew she was going to need a small business loan. She called the local SBA office and requested a large sum of money because she needed to buy, “drywall, insulation and things.” The next day the money was in her account Boon giggles, “I hadn’t even signed the papers yet!” She boasts as she already began to pay on the loan and is even ahead of the payments. Boon reflects a little and finds it important to say, “If it were not for my loyal customers, friends and family I can do nothing. If I just use my own power it was too hard.”
Like a true anchor, a year after the awful floodwaters decimated the Anchor Inn it appears untouched. Boon remembers the days and is glad to be at this point. She is proud to be the site for the First Anniversary Flood Survivor Supper on May 23rd. The supper is a free meal for all survivors and volunteers sponsored by the Clayton County Disaster Recovery Committee.
Joleen Final Review: The Anchor Inn is a great example of the work ethic exhibited in Clayton County restaurants. To know the story behind Boon and the survival of the Anchor Inn is really a privilege.
I ate at the Anchor Inn on a Taco Tuesday Night. Our family of five had three huge soft shell tacos and two hard shell tacos. The meal with drinks was very affordable and we were full. The tacos were very good and service was quick. That night a patron told me not to miss the next Oriental Buffet Thursday. She informed the place is packed and they often run out of food. I asked Boon about the buffet and she admits Thai food is too spicy for the local customers, so she “cooks it medium.” She includes both Thai and Chinese food. Crowd favorites include, chicken fried rice, beef and broccoli and pork and cauliflower. The next buffet is on Thursday, May 12. I plan to get there early.
Garber’s Anchor Inn holds steady again in 08
The Anchor Inn, in Garber, is the only restaurant and bar within a 15 mile radius.
Boonraksa Menge, a native of Thailand, has owned the Anchor Inn for fourteen years.
Boon is in a grateful mood these days, nearly a month, after the third time flood waters threatened the business that is her livelihood and the hub of society for many area residents. “Can you believe I deal with three floods,” she says as she counts them on her fingers, “One in ’99, 2004 and this year.”
This year she had little warning but lots of help from all of the area fire departments. Early on April 24th around 1a.m. Garber Fire Chief, Roger Bolsinger, called Boone just as she was just going to bed after closing the bar. He told her the Turkey River was on the rise and it looked like she was going to get hit again.
Boone with the help of family, friends, neighbors, and fire crews quickly emptied all moveable objects from her business and stored them in the Garber fire station. Next the crew began the many of hours of filling and placing sand bags. The river did rise out of its banks on April 24, yet the Anchor was spared with just some water lining the basement of the building.
A grateful Boone one month later has her business back into its usual, immaculate shiny state and business in Garber is back to normal. Just a few random sandbags dotting the outside of the building hint that floodwaters recently threatened the operation.
Boon is back to a regular schedule of opening her restaurant at 10 am. She serves breakfast all day long. Each day a daily noon and evening special is offered. The Anchor is known for the burgers, and an awesome oriental buffet served usually, on the second Thursday evening of each month. Patrons of the Anchor Inn can use one of the two front entrances; one door enters the friendly bar and seating area the other into a banquet dining space. The party room seat groups up to 120.
Compared to the devastation the restaurant suffered in 2004, when raging flood waters filled the restaurant 4 ft above the first floor; this flood was not as serious. However the fear and anxiety Boone and rest of the townspeople felt just four years after their town changed forever was immeasurable.
