Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
Quick Take:
Brian and Kellie Cline lost their home in the fire but the Vida Cafe, which they had purchased just a few months before, was spared. The restaurant is still vital to a healing community.
Editor’s note: Five years ago this month, the Holiday Farm Fire ripped through the McKenzie Valley, destroying hundreds of homes and leaving enduring scars — physical, psychological and on the land itself. This is another in a series of Lookout Eugene-Springfield stories examining the fire and its aftermath.
When the Holiday Farm Fire swept through the McKenzie River corridor Sept. 7, 2020, it upended everything in the lives of Brian and Kellie Cline, who own Vida Cafe.
The fire swept around their business on both sides. Firefighters staged their trucks in the parking lot and sprayed the building with water. The cafe, which the couple had purchased just the previous year, survived.
The couple wasn’t so fortunate with their home, however. In addition, Brian’s parents, his grandfather, and his aunt and uncle also lost their homes in the blaze that devastated the community.
While they’ve moved on with their lives, the losses still weigh on the family.
“I don’t think you ever really do get over it,” Kellie Cline said. “So that’s why we just try to focus on moving forward and on what we’ve got left. It’s not that I don’t talk about it, we just don’t make it the focus.”
Brian’s parents rebuilt their home on their land. His aunt and uncle are content to have found a spot to park their RV. Kellie, Brian and their six children settled in Junction City, and began rebuilding their lives, though they still own Vida Cafe and commute 45 miles to open it each day.
The couple met in Eugene, married in 2007, and settled in the McKenzie River area in 2010. Kellie became a schoolteacher with the McKenzie School District and Brian, who grew up near McKenzie Bridge, managed Takoda’s Restaurant in Blue River. Kellie got bored in summer when school was out of session, she said, so one day she visited Vida Cafe in search of a waitressing job. Cline introduced herself to the owner, and told her she and Brian had agreed that if the cafe was ever on the market, they would consider buying it.
“The owner said, ‘Consider it on the market,’” Cline said. “Within two weeks she was out and we were in.”
That was June 2019. The Clines had just a few months of normal business before COVID forced them to provide takeout-only meals. Nine months later, the fire happened.
They lived in a hotel for a few weeks. When a neighbor who didn’t evacuate told them their home didn’t survive, Cline said it was almost a relief.
“Not knowing was worse than knowing,” she said. “Because once we knew it was gone, we could at least start there.”
‘We didn’t want to abandon this place’
The Clines wanted to keep the cafe running, but they also had the well-being of their children to consider. Now, they drive in from Junction City to open the cafe Wednesday through Sunday. Two of their sons, Aiden and Linken, work at the restaurant on weekends.
The fire’s impact on the family, especially their youngest, who was only 8 at the time the fire forced them to evacuate, influenced their decision to relocate to Junction City.
“We decided early on that we didn’t want to live up here, at least for the time being,” Cline said. “Our youngest did not want to live in the woods again. It was pretty scary for him.”
The decision to keep the cafe running while living an hour away hasn’t been easy, but it has allowed the Clines to maintain their connection to the area.
“It was important to us, after the fire, to still be part of the community,” Cline said. “We didn’t want to abandon this place.”
While everybody’s happy and healthy now, Cline said, the trauma lingers in subtle ways, such as a layer of anxiety that settles over the family with every windstorm. Writing has become a form of therapy for Cline, who has written a “somewhat fictional” novel about the fire experience, and two other books, though she doesn’t know if anyone other than her will ever read them.
‘The community was taking care of us’
After the fire, Cline recalled how the cafe became a community touchpoint: Seemingly everyone came to it for coffee and conversation — or just as a place to be together. People told her then how grateful they were that the cafe was open, Cline said.
And people are still telling her that, because many other businesses in the area either closed or didn’t rebuild.
The cafe did close for several weeks, following the fire, and Cline says the community helped keep them going once they reopened. Between COVID and the fire, they were barely making it.
“The community was taking care of us for a while to keep us here,” Cline said. “People who were maybe coming in once a week were coming twice a week to support us because they wanted us to be here and they knew for us to be here, they had to be here.”
The cafe draws customers from the McKenzie River area, but also from across the region. Cline said regulars drive in weekly from Florence and Sisters. One man drives in from Grants Pass and eats at the cafe twice a month. One family who travels from England twice a year eats at the cafe every time they are here.
The cafe’s appeal extends beyond its role as a community icon to the quality of its food, which is focused around traditional diner breakfast and lunch fare.
“You can get a good lunch anywhere but good breakfast is really hard to find,” Cline said, “and Brian’s really good at breakfast.”
Johanna Dijoria, who lives in Newberg, was in the cafe with her mother recently, having coffee and eggs. For Dijoria’s family, the meal continues a long tradition — they’ve owned a cabin in the area since the 1960s and the family has spent every summer here since, with the Vida Cafe a constant presence throughout their decades of visits.
The pie, especially the marionberry, consistently draws the family back to the cafe, but Dijoria also recognizes that community gathering spots such as the cafe are essential in rural areas.
“Every person matters out here, they really do,” she said. “When these things happen, and you lose someone or some place, it affects everybody.”
Looking forward, looking back
The cafe was built in 1950 and was originally called The Firs Cafe. It has been owned by a number of families, many of which are still in the area, Cline said. Guest checks found in 1986 during remodeling were turned into a framed collage that documents 12 families as previous owners. The town of Vida itself, 29 miles from Eugene on Highway 126, was officially established in 1898, according to a historical sign on the exterior wall of the cafe.
As the McKenzie River corridor continues its long recovery from the Holiday Farm Fire, the Vida Cafe stands as evidence that community bonds, like the forest surrounding the cafe, have the power to regenerate, even if the landscape looks different than it did before.
Now, the Clines are stewarding the cafe into the future, making their familiar drive from Junction City each day, ready to unlock the doors of a place that was, and still is, an anchor for the town. The scars from the fire are visible from the windows of the cafe, but Cline — who described herself as a “silver-lining person” — sees something more.
“We try to focus on moving forward and not dwelling on what happened,” she said. “You have to move on at some point and stay positive.”
Vida Cafe
45641 McKenzie Highway, Vida
541-896-3289
https://www.facebook.com/TheVidaCafe
