The first business establishment in Brainerd was some sort of an eating place, probably a boarding house to feed railroad construction workers.

Since then hundreds of restaurants have been operated in Brainerd, some of them with long lives and others with short lives.

At the present time, Van's Cafe on the corner of Washington and Sixth streets is the oldest eating place under the same family ownership. The Van Essen family have owned the cafe since 1936. The building, however, had housed a restaurant for many years before the Van Essens took over the business.

At least two other locations in Brainerd have been known as restaurant sites for a long period of time. The present site of Land 0' Lakes cafe and the Vogue has long been locations of restaurants. Alex Starrell ran a restaurant at the present Vogue site for many years and Bill Garvey was a long-time owner of the Land 0' Lakes cafe before it was purchased by George Drake and George Tsenes, who operated it until this year.

Brainerd is known as a city of many restaurants which have been established because of the heavy tourist business.

The building now housing Van's Cafe has a colorful history. It once served as an office building at the Brainerd Lumber company sawmill across Mill Avenue from the Northwest Paper company plant. It was moved to its present site from that location. The building has been completely modernized and expanded since that time.

Last summer's fire in the Iron Exchange building forced the Vogue to move from that building to its present location in the Elks building.

Reproduced from the Centennial Edition of the Brainerd Daily Dispatch (1871-1971).