http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1-5willowsoct12,0,5088893.story?coll=all-news-hed The following article was in this morning's Allentown PA Morning Call newspaper. The Willows has been mentioned on this forum by myself and others.
There was no corn pie, sauerkraut or pig's stomach to be had at Willows restaurant in East Texas on Tuesday night.
Instead a sign at the window, scrawled on the back of a yellow paper menu, announced unceremoniously what locals already were struggling to come to grips with:
''Due to flooding, the restaurant is closed.''
Unlike last time, said owner-manager Crystal Koch, it will not reopen.
A little more than a year ago, when a band of heavy thunderstorms and fire destroyed Koch's home and the neighboring restaurant that had been in her family since 1951, the community banded together to help her rebuild.
When heavy rain again pounded the spot in Lower Macungie on Saturday, the same group returned to help. Within two hours they had cleared out all the antique chairs, perishable food and dry goods.
But when the last door was secured that evening, the end of an era and the final chapter in the restaurant's proud history closed with it, said Koch.
''I've let my grandparents down,'' she said softly. ''I don't like giving it up, but there is no way I can do this every year.''
The down-home Pennsylvania Dutch food cooked up at the Willows have been a Lehigh County staple since it was founded more than 54 years ago by brothers Russell and Lester Koch.
Rattling off a list of their favorite items on the menu Tuesday, Jeff, 47, and Cathy Stauffer, 48, recalled suppers at Willows, dining on pig's stomach, clams in home-drawn butter, cabbage and apple fritters.
''There is just nowhere else around where you can get this,'' said Cathy Stauffer from her car, stopped in front of the restaurant with her husband. The couple had driven to the spot hoping against hope that rumors of the closing were unfounded.
The food and the community-oriented atmosphere brought the Stauffers back to Willows every few weeks. Their son, a college freshman, has washed dishes at the Willows for the past three years.
''She [Koch] would say, 'Don't come in until your homework is done,''' said Stauffer. ''They did a lot for the kids who worked there.''
Though Koch and her mother, Shirlene, remained the main cooks and bakers at the restaurant, they were aided to a large extent by a small army of teenagers, most of them Emmaus High School students.
Among them was Lauren Muick, 16. Muick got her first job working at Willows, next door to her house, soon after she turned 15. Koch, also a friend of the family, brought Muick a menu and told her to memorize it.
''It's upsetting,'' said Muick peering solemnly inside the window of the closed restaurant Tuesday. ''It's so fun to work here. Everyone knows everyone and everyone is really nice.''
Crystal Koch was equally wistful. It was destiny that brought her back to the family business after initially leaving to pursue a sociology degree at Immaculata College, her mother said.
''She said 'I'm going away for college and I'm not coming back,''' recalled the elder Koch. ''I said, 'What do you mean?'''
She returned in 1999. The rest, said Shirlene Koch, is history.
A steady stream of concerned regulars kept Koch and her mother busy Tuesday, the day before the younger Koch's 44th birthday.
''Is it true?'' and ''Are you sure this is the right thing?'' were the main questions Koch said she fielded.
''I feel bad, I'm letting them all down,'' she said. ''But you can only ask for help so many times. … I don't want to owe money to this place and that person. I'm not like that. I'm Dutch.''
