Happy Space

Finding Nostalgia at the Callahan Emporium…

You’d be forgiven if you’ve never heard of Callahan, an unincorporated community along State Route 3, population 50 or so. The nearest “bigger” town is Etna, about 11 miles to the northwest with a population of 700. “We’re pretty much in the middle of nowhere, so we have to do a lot of our own repairs because you can’t get services out here. If you look at it from an aerial view, there’s not a whole lot of things surrounding Callahan other than wilderness,” explains Chelsee Barnes, owner and operator of the Callahan Emporium – a restaurant, bar and general store that’s always been a destination in its own right, and makes any visit to Callahan worth the stop. “We make sandwiches and serve wine and cold beers. We have scoop ice cream seasonally. We also sell beer, snacks and ice in the store, so it’s like a last-minute stop with all-encompassing retail. If you ask me what I do, I suppose I would say I’m a cook, a bartender, a server and a checkout clerk.”

Built in 1854, the Callahan Emporium has been around for 170 years. “Originally it was the Baker Hotel, and then the bar was added in 1956. It’s definitely the last stop before you hit the Trinity County line, or if you’re a Pacific Crest Trail hiker coming off the trail, it’s one of the first things you see. People usually have a reason for coming to Callahan, sometimes just because their grandma used to shop here 70 years ago. There’s a lot of nostalgia around it. We also provide live music in the summertime. We even pulled this old truck off the ranch and converted it into a stage. People have been really drawn to that,” says Barnes. And, after several requests, Barnes has also started offering event catering. “When I was approached about it, I was just like, ‘Sure, I can feed more than three people at a time. I can do whatever you want. You want 125? Great, let’s go.’”

How Barnes and her husband Brian Barnes came to own the Emporium is rooted in a love story. “I’m not going to lie to you, it was straight up impulse. I was 22 years old with shiny eyes and was like, ‘I can do anything.’ Brian and I were dating at the time and I was living in Ashland, so we would drive back and forth to see each other. After about a year working for Fran, who used to own the Emporium, I’d learned she’d put it up for sale. By that point, I’d grown a connection with the building and was like ‘Wait, if I bought it, this could just be my job here!’ I know that sounds silly, but that’s really what happened. I had previous experience working in the restaurant, bar and barista industry, so I had that part down, but it’s been very humbling at times learning how to be a business owner in the State of California. I mean, at first it was just things like trying to figure out sales tax after coming from Oregon. Like, what’s a quarterly?”

Ten years later, and now with a set of twins thrown into the mix, Barnes says there’s never a dull moment. “It’s chaos. Absolute chaos. Some of the characters that come through here are really wild. We had a guy show up with a truck full of parrots one day so there were parrots hanging outside all day, and I was like ‘Okay, we’re opening a zoo today.’ And, between running two businesses, because Brian also has an alfalfa ranch, and then just trying to get to school and do baseball, soccer and jiu-jitsu, it’s organized chaos at best, and sometimes we’re better at it than others. It’s exhausting, yes, but it’s also really exciting because I have to wear so many different hats.”

Of course, not every hat is pretty. “Some of them are pretty dirty, and you just want to shove them into the back of the closet,” she says. “Like today, I had to be a plumber. And, then sometimes I’ve just sat down and cried on the floor. It’s the hardest freaking thing I’ve ever done in my life aside from raising children.”

But Barnes loves it because she loves her community. “Certain people will come out there several times a week just to get things like a six-pack of beer or motor oil. And they’ll check in with us first before going into town because they tell us they want to keep us here. And, a lot of people don’t make a lot of money anymore, so if they’re coming out here and spending their hard-earned money to take their wife out to dinner or have some beers and play pool with their siblings, it’s really cool. To see people happy in a space that you’ve created, that’s more than enough to keep you going.” •

Callahan Emporium
12511 S. State Highway 3, Callahan
(530) 467-3395
Winter hours (November-May): Tuesday-Sunday, 11am-7pm; summer hours (June-October): Tuesday-Sunday, 7am-7pm (open for breakfast)