Someday Café

HOT FOOD, WARM FRIENDSHIPS AT SOMEDAY CAFE

By Garrett Gross

Kim and Mike Frerichs are owners of the Someday Café. Photos by Vince Danh, 4Front Studios.

In every small town there is a place where people congregate. It’s often a location where a sense of community is built, relationships are formed, and friendships are strengthened.

In some towns, the gathering place is the barber shop or a local hairstylist. In other towns, it’s the bowling alley or a coffee shop. In Baltic, it’s the Someday Cafe.

When Mike and Kim Frerichs acquired the building on St. Olaf Avenue 12 years ago, they envisioned running a restaurant where Baltic residents could meet up. However, the time and sweat equity needed to turn an old building into what it is today was not as quick and smooth a path as they thought it would be.

For years, Mike and Kim would work on remodeling the building with their long-term goal in mind. “It got to the point where people would see me carrying materials inside the building, and they’d ask me ‘When are you going to open,” said Mike. ”My response was always the same, ‘Well, someday.”’

That “someday” finally came in June of 2018 and the Someday Cafe has been a success ever since!

Starting a new business is always a challenge, but considering Mike’s experience working in food service for Avera for 39 years, his culinary knowledge base far exceeded the normal start-up restaurant business. Mike makes all the soup, gravy and desserts from scratch. The day to day operations are a total family affair; Mike handles the kitchen; Kim runs the business side; and two of their daughters, Kimber and Danielle, wait tables and interact with customers. The roles sometimes intermingle to make sure the business runs smoothly.

“When we first opened, we wanted to make sure our customers knew that we appreciated them. We wanted to call them by their first names and make them feel important,” he said. “We actually used one of the local church directories which listed the name and faces of many of our customers.” Over time, those customers became repeat guests and Mike and Kim didn’t need to check the directory as frequently.

The cafe is currently only open for lunch and dinner, Thursday through Saturday. The reason for the limited hours is two-fold. First, it’s been said that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and for the patrons of the Someday Cafe, this rings true. Secondly, as the community grows, it just makes more sense to follow the current approach and produce the best food possible for the days