THE LITTLE CAFÉ THAT COULD
Family-run Lake Wohlford Café, offering comfort-food fare, overcomes series of setbacks in last few years
Mary Khuu recites the list of disasters, large and small, that have either shut down or slowed business at the family-run café she and her husband bought three years ago at a scenic spot next to Lake Wohlford in Escondido.
First, there was the COVID-19 pandemic that hit just weeks after the couple assumed ownership of the Lake Wohlford Café in February 2020. Later, the café was inundated with water from heavy rains that forced the business to close for renovations.
Last summer, a county pipeline project snarled traffic and cut into business. Finally, a rockslide along Lake Wohlford Road forced the road’s closure for about three weeks, in January and February of this year, resulting in a 30 percent hit to receipts.
“We’ve had a heck of a time for the last three years,” Khuu said. Somehow, though, the business
has survived and is still serving up such comfort-food fare as chicken fried steak, biscuits and gravy, homemade corned beef hash, catfish and cod.
“I’m still here, I don’t want to give up,” Khuu said.
“After doing this I’ve gotten to enjoy my customers a lot, they’re
like family to me. I try to remember everyone by their names, it’s more personable,” she said.
Customers come for the food but they also celebrate family occasions such as the birth of a new grandchild or commiserate over the loss of a loved one, Khuu said.
The café is open for breakfast and lunch Tuesday through Sunday, and Khuu also hosts karaoke night on Thursday.
While the café marks the couple’s first foray into the hospitality business — the café holds a cabaret license as well as permits to sell craft beer and wine — previously they owned a company that produced technical publications. They bought the café several years ago when her husband wanted to try something different, Khuu said. The couple has four children, and the family has lived in the Valley Center area for about 20 years.
The most recent incident that affected the café’s business was a landslide that struck in mid-January after rains saturated the ground for several days. Debris and boulders forced the closure of Lake Wohlford Road between Valley Parkway and Oakvale Road, said a city staff report.
Public works crews attempted to clear the debris, but found that boulders near the top of the hillside
were also at risk of sliding down. The project required a contractor with specialized equipment to clear the boulders from above the slide area, said the report.
The work took two to three weeks and the road reopened Feb. 2, according to the city.
During past disruptions, Khuu found a way to muddle through, but this time she decided to reach out to city officials to encourage a speedy resolution to the problem. She sent a letter to Mayor Dane White as well as pictures of the area.
Among her concerns, Khuu said, was that road closure signs failed to let motorists know the café was open and accessible during the construction work. She praised the city and its new mayor — White was elected to his first term as mayor last November — with quick work.
“He got the job done,” Khuu said.
The city updated its signage in a couple of days and before long, the road was also open. “We were pretty happy about that,” she said. White did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Khuu plans to keep the café going and is considering ways of bolstering revenue, such as opening on Saturday evenings for drinks and appetizers.
“It’s slowly picking up again. I’m hoping it will give people a chance to come out and support us,” she said.
The landslide wasn’t the only damage caused by recent rains. Also in mid-January, a pair of sinkholes opened — one in the Casa Grande Mobile Estates on South Hale Avenue and the other in the parking lot of a nearby church. City officials determined the collapse of a 27inch sewer line was the likely culprit, and made emergency repairs, according to a staff report.