A new restaurant set to open on Main Street this month will add options for Haines locals in the winter months and beyond.

Owners Robert and Sue Gibson recently moved from Skagway to operate the Moose Caboose Café that will be in the Frontier Tradesman building. The couple also own the BBQ Shack restaurant in Skagway.

“We appeal to tourists in Skagway, but we want to appeal to the locals here,” Gibson said. “Tourists are the gravy, but we like the locals.”

The café will open with a limited menu for breakfast and lunch. A dinner menu will be added several weeks later. The café will have a barista to serve coffee and other hot drinks as well as baked goods and pastries.

Although Gibson said he hasn’t made final decisions on menu items yet, daily soup and lunch specials will be provided, as well as burgers, hot dogs, pizza, mozzarella sticks and more. The restaurant may also offer a local delivery service.

Also on the pipeline are ideas to have “dinner and a movie” nights in the space for locals to watch new movies while enjoying a meal. Gibson said he’d also like to get school and community groups involved to use the space for fundraising or selling local crafts around the holidays.

The café will feature old newspapers on the walls and display money from 110 countries that Gibson collected from tourists at his restaurant in Skagway. A couch, tables and chairs will be available for locals to sit and enjoy their food and drinks. A toy train collection will also adorn shelves near the front counter; Gibson was a railroad engineer for 28 years.

Gibson said he is still interviewing people to staff the restaurant. The café will open at 6 or 7 a.m. and close at 4 or 5 p.m. each day. The grand opening will be around Oct. 19.

“I love Haines, I’ve always loved Haines,” Gibson said. He said he lived here briefly in the 1990s as a tour guide. “I just think it’s a great place to live and have a business.”

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