NORTH BEND, Wash. — A VHS tape rolling on a little TV inside Twede’s Cafe takes us back to the '90s when the show Twin Peaks put North Bend on the map.
Now, 30-plus years later fans from all over make a stop and order a meal inside Twede’s Café, known to the world as the Double R Diner.
“I had never seen anything like that, it was like living in black and white and suddenly seeing the world in color,” said Diana Stavraulakis a long-time fan from Pittsburgh.
“I think that the people that we connect with through this community, we have a special bond, there is something about this that draws us all in,” she continued.
The restaurant is historic in its own rights, first opened in the 1940s, and then just a few months before COVID, new, young owners took the helm: Rachel Bennet, a midwife, and her husband Max Spear a Ph.D. of Philosophy.
“It started out just kind of as a fun fantasy that we talked about,” Bennet said.
“It was like a joke at first,” Spears said. “Could we do it, could we afford it, does the business make money?”
The diner survived COVID because of the loyal viewers – and tonight those same people are giving the diner an upgrade.
“Yeah so in the show, the dinner is called the Double R Diner. This is really making it officially the Double R Dinner, aka the Twede's Café,” Bennett said.
Adding those two letters wasn’t as easy as it sounds – they were recreated from scratch – all funded by a fan base that raised nearly 30 thousand dollars in just a few months’ time.
“As part of this project we had to get approval from the historic foundation because it is a historic landmark and to make any major changes. You have to get approval from the historic committee,”
Approval was granted and tonight the letters are glowing neon red. An homage to a show that many no longer be on air -- but is still part of regular viewing in this small mountain town.