Cougar Mountain Lodge in Cascade recently closed to undergo renovations.
Current owner Patrick Willis said some things have remained a constant with the business since it opened in the 1940s. It’s always been a restaurant with rooms upstairs and a convenience store – and it has long been a family business.
“From the families that started the business back in 1938 to 41, on through they’ve all lived in the community and it’s a fairly small group of people that have owned it,” Willis said. “We just kind of keep going as the small family business up there in the area.”
Willis said last year they wanted to do a “big restoration” but with increasing construction costs and interest rates it was put on the back burner. The new idea is to do a few projects at a time, starting now with the first round of projects.
“Probably each year, tackle kind of project by project,” he said. “We need to redo windows and things, eventually. Just with the economy the way it is right now, just kind of pay as you go – versus what we were hoping to do last year was just get a business loan and then kind of get everything done in all one fell swoop.”
During the closure, the plan is to redo the hardwood floor in the restaurant and near the doors, add booths to the front areas, and expand the bar.
“We’ve increased our cooking capacity by getting a larger grill and then we’re going to change the bar top situation a little bit because it’s a popular place for people to sit,” Willis said.
He said the plan is also to freshen up the paint on the exterior and do some landscaping when the weather starts warming up.
Cougar Mountain Lodge will reopen on Mother’s Day weekend. Willis said it is the same weekend he and his wife opened when they took over in 2017.
“May is really kind of the kickoff of the season up there,” he said. “The diehards want to get out and start camping. My wife and I, when we bought and took over Cougar Mountain Lodge, it was Mother’s Day weekend of 2017 when we opened it up. It was kind of like, well, let’s just do Mother’s Day weekend. (It) gives us a couple of weeks to get projects done and April is absolutely the slowest time in the world up there because there’s no skiing, there’s no snowmobiling, there’s just mud, and melting snow.”
