Nestled in the picturesque village of Point Reyes Station, Station House Café has been serving baskets of popovers and family meals for five decades.
Station House Café opened in 1964, helmed by the Rehbein family. They decorated the building with now defunct signage: FOOD TO GO. HAMBURGER. (Yes, “hamburger” in the singular). In the years since, five different owners have come through, but some things stayed the same. The hamburger remained the perennial lunchtime favorite, and polenta has been a best-seller since the mid-‘70s.
Meanwhile other things changed, like where the Station House was, well, housed. The building where Station House Café sat until 2023 — that homey brown building just when you turn into Point Reyes Station when coming from the south — was actually the restaurant’s second location, after a move in 1989. The old location? Two blocks up the road. And what’s more about the old location: It’s also the restaurant’s new location! Let me explain.
2020 was a hard year for the restaurant, as it was for many others. When Station House’s landlord threatened to raise rent threefold, it seemed like the end for the beloved institution. But Sheryl Cahill, the restaurant’s owner since 2005, found their new location in a familiar place: the building at 3rd and Main Streets, where the restaurant operated from 1964 to 1989. A three-year-long project began for the restoration, expansion and permitting of the building. After the renovations, Station House Café returned to its original location.
With so many years under its belt, Station House Café has experienced its share of history and changing technology. Cahill recalls walking to the gift store down the street to print menus on the town’s only Xerox machine in the ‘90s. Then there was the Vision Fire in 1995, when the restaurant converted into a sandwich-making operation for firefighters and volunteers. Fonder memories came as well, like when then-Prince Charles and his wife Camilla visited Point Reyes Station — big company for a little village! The bar at Station House Café was packed with international journalists, reporting on the royals’ movements at the town farmers market.
Suffice it to say, Station House Café has been around the block, literally. Cheers to another 60 years.
What does 60 years at Station House look like? Well that means…
- 500,000 burgers grilled
- 125,000 dozen oysters shucked
- 2000 live music shows presented
- 1,250,000 popovers baked
