Pheasant Cafe offers tradition, consistency

Zach Battenfeld, owner of Waseca’s Pheasant Cafe since 2020, recognizes that he owns an icon.

 

Hanging on the wall in the cafe is the text of a short Waseca Herald newspaper article dated 1940. It tells how Joel Wallschlager was in the process of moving his home-based business to a downtown location where it would have “six booths, a counter, seven stools, and tables.” Not only that, but it would be “completely equipped electrically” and therefore ready to serve “regular breakfasts, lunches, dinner and short orders.”

 

The Pheasant Cafe, located at 104 South State Street, officially opens at 6 a.m. each morning, Battenfeld typically arrives around 4:30 a.m. “I get the coffee brewing, I put the cinnamon rolls in the oven, and just generally get ready for the day,” 

 

At 5:30, he opens the doors for his first group of “regulars.”   Larry Halvorson is among that group which can be as large as eight people each morning or as small as five. Halvorson, retired from his career as a commercial insurance agent, says he and his companions are naturally early risers who spend up to 45 minutes each morning in conversation about “just about any topic.” “Zach is a real nice guy,” Halvorson says. “He works really hard; he opens the door for us at that hour when I can’t think of any other business in town that would.” Although most members of the 5:30 group stick to coffee and perhaps a roll, Halvorson says he knows the breakfasts are very good, since he and his wife sometimes come in a bit later in the morning for some food.  

 

The Pheasant has six employees in addition to Battenfeld. “All of us can do pretty much anything that’s called for,” he observes. “In a small cafe like ours, you have to be pretty versatile.”

 

A 2005 graduate of Waseca High School, Battenfeld tells of having worked as a teenager for Mark and Dean Worke, brothers who owned and operated the cafe together for 45 years. “That’s something truly special,” he observes.

 

He says he started as a dishwasher and then gradually took on other tasks. “I loved working there,” he remembers. “I loved the atmosphere, I loved the connection with the customers.

 

“I guess I kind of always had the feeling I’d like to be the owner someday.” He says he first raised the possibility to the brothers in 2017, “But they weren’t quite ready to retire.” He told them to get in touch when the time came, which they did about two years later.

 

Zach remembers he and his wife Carmen became the owners on Jan. 1, 2020. They had roughly three months to get into the swing of things before the Covid pandemic shut everything down.

 

“That was tough,” says Zach. “Really tough. 

 

“But I told Carmen things would come back to the way they had been, and eventually they did.”

 

As he describes the ways his life intertwines with the restaurant, it seems he is grateful to be where he is today.

 

He says when he looks out from the kitchen, his usual place during the hours of operation, he describes seeing the booths filled with customers who are enjoying each other’s company over the meals he has prepared and his staff has served.

 

“Seeing them there ‘conversating’ and spending time together, it makes me happy,” he says. “It’s a truly good feeling knowing I helped make those moments possible.”

 

It is probably that sense of tradition, he observes, which has led him to keep operating the restaurant in the same way the previous owners did.

 

“People ask me why I don’t remodel,” he mentions, saying he particularly gets comments regarding the old-fashioned blue upholstery in the booths. “Well, there are grandparents out in those booths who have brought their grandchildren, and they’re able to say they ate here, on those benches, as a child.

 

“There’s a lot of nostalgia in a place like the Pheasant.”

 

He has made only a couple of additions to the menu, as well. “We’re serving what people have shown over time that they like to eat in a place like ours,” he comments. He mentions turkey commercials and burgers at lunchtime and hash browns, eggs, pancakes–and perhaps especially cinnamon rolls–for breakfast.

 

But alongside the nostalgia is another Minnesota staple: “hard work.”

 

“The Worke boys taught me a lot,” he mentions. “One thing I didn’t realize before 2020 was how much paperwork is involved with owning a business.”

 

So when the restaurant closes at 2 p.m. on its Monday-through-Saturday days of operation, Zach says he often heads to the office to take care of that side of the business. A vital task is making sure all the needed supplies are on hand each day.

 

The Pheasant also offers catering, providing food for a wide variety of gatherings large and small. “We’re often hired for funerals,” he mentions. “We are glad to help people with those. One challenge is they’re often scheduled on rather short notice.”

 

At times like that, he says, he’s deeply grateful for members of his family who frequently help. His parents Brian and Kim and brother Noah frequently free up time to help with the many tasks involved with preparing, transporting and serving the food, not to mention cleaning up afterward.

 

“Those are times when it’s all hands on deck,” he comments. Though Carmen has a full-time job at Conagra as a financial analyst, she also gives freely of whatever time she can. The two also have a three-year-old son, Kashton, and are expecting a second child in November.

 

In addition to operating the cafe, Zach mentions he has Bettenfeld Lawn Service, a company with two employees besides himself which offers lawn mowing in the summer and snow clearing in the winter. 

 

Scheduling is pretty straightforward in the summer, he comments–”unless there’s a breakdown or a problem with equipment,” and can be challenging in the winter after a snowfall, when all his clients are hoping to have their snow cleared as quickly as possible.

 

“That’s another time when it’s all hands on deck,” he says.

 

Still, whether the day is stressful or calm, Zach says “I’m glad to know I’m helping people, making their lives better in one way or another.

 

“Sure, it can be demanding, but with the help of my employees and my family, I’m up to it.

“I’ve never been afraid of hard work.”