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Vale’s Starlite Café set to reopen

The Diamond Back sign outside the restaurant was replaced with a Starlite Café sign. (The Enterprise/Yadira Lopez)

THIS STORY HAS BEEN UPDATED

VALE – Four and a half months after closing, the Starlite Café plans on reopening.

The restaurant sat at 152 Clark St. N. for 13 years until owner Sharon Bannon decided to close the Starlite and lease the space to the Diamond Back Grill.

The Diamond Back took over in October. But just six weeks after the restaurant operators moved their business from their former location on the east side of Vale, a broken drain pipe put a stop to the operation.

The restaurant has remained closed since late November. A reopening date has been set for Saturday, Feb. 15 from 6:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

 “It will be opening up as the Starlite,” she said, adding that the restaurant would be serving only breakfast and lunch for the time being.

Cammie Bashon, who operated the Diamond Back, said that her business would likely still be in operation if the repairs had been finished sooner.

 “The move to the new location and only being six weeks open didn’t provide us with the opportunity to recover from the move and from hiring new people and training them,” said Bashon.

When the pipe broke around Thanksgiving, Bashon said she and her business partners expected they’d be down about two to three weeks. But the holiday delayed the insurance company’s response, and once the repairs began, Bashon said the damage was more extensive than expected.

“Part of it was how long the repairs took,” Bashon said, but another part was that she said she and her business partners had no control over the process.

“We had no say in any of the repairs or any of the color of tile,” Bashon said.

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Bashon said she felt resigned but “very sad, very emotional.”

“It’s a huge loss,” she said. “We’re all feeling it.”

Bashon had operated the Diamond Back in east Vale for 13 months. She planned on making the restaurant business her main job.

She has no plans to open the restaurant elsewhere, but she and her business partners will still be available for catering.

“We’ve been knocked down because we don’t have a building,” Bashon said. “But the Diamond Back is not dead.”

She said anybody interested in catering should contact her business partner Colin Bashon at 541-216-2493.

The Starlite’s open hours will be 6:30 to 2 p.m. until the place regains its footing.

Bannon said customers would see familiar faces when the Starlite reopens.

“Most of our original crew will be back,” she said.

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