Restaurant opens in former print shop

Over six grueling months, the Guenthner family raised a new restaurant from the dusty, aging chambers of a former print shop building in downtown Colfax.

The new restaurant, Toccata Blues Grill, opened Monday. They dished up the restaurant’s two first meals, a philly cheese steak and a bacon, lettuce, and tomato hamburger, at 11:45 a.m.

The restaurant serves all-American food, with an average breakfast or lunch costing $7 a plate, and dinners, $11. They also have plans for live, local music on Friday and Saturday night.

Terri and Bob Guenthner of Colfax bought the building from Gazette publisher Gordon Forgey June 17 for $25,000.

The building had been used to house a news press, and equipment for the Gazette’s former commercial printing operation. The rooms were full of old, occasionally broken, newspaper supplies.

The Daily Bulletin was the last item printed in the building and that ceased when the Gazette converted to a copy machine to print the daily.

Still evident on the newly finished wooden floors of the restaurant are the scars and ink stains left by the job shop presses.

The building dates back to the end of the 19th century.

Terri Guenthner said the extensive remodel took all five family members working long hours for the last six months.

“It was so much work,” she said.

They knocked out interior wall and, a false ceiling.

An all-new kitchen and bathroom were installed along with overhead lights. Walls were finished and painted.

While cleaning out the building, the family unearthed a few Colfax relics. A 1926 poster for a Fred Astaire movie playing in the Colfax Rose Theatre was found insulating a back window. They found a mid-1930s Mothers Day Card, and a 1940 birth announcement.

The original wooden floor was marred with years of ink stains from Gazette printers. They sanded and varnished the floor, leaving the ink stains in for effect.

“We figured someone is going to come in and say, ‘I was working here the day the printer burned that spot,’” she said.

The name Toccata Blues comes from two places. Terri is a piano instructor and liked Bach’s organ piece called Toccata and Fugue.

Their son Dustin liked the name Blues, so they paired Toccata and Blues.

The Guenthners have lived in Colfax since 1993, and their four children all graduated from Colfax High School.

Bob Guenthner took a job as an agronomist with the USDA office in Pullman when they moved here in 1993 and has worked at that office ever since.

Years ago he worked in construction, and the family has largely relied on his construction knowledge as they remodeled the building.

Terri teaches piano lessons and has worked odd jobs off and on since their move to Colfax.

Two of the Guenthner children, now grown up, helped remodel the restaurant. Dustin and Christine Guenthner both worked full-time to help remodel the interior- Dustin even quit his job in Pullman to help pull the project together.

Dustin’s wife, Crystn, also helped take care of the family’s home in Colfax while everyone focused on the restaurant.

The family came up with the idea of starting a restaurant a year ago when Terri realized the last of her children would soon be leaving home. Anxious to find something to fill the time, she and the family were brainstorming ideas. Their suggestions started as a quilting shop, then escalated into a full restaurant.

They noticed the Gazette storage building downtown one day and quickly made an offer.

Six months of hard work later, Toccata Blues opened.

They are open 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday.

Along one side of the restaurant the Guenthners have installed a digital piano for locals to play on Friday and Saturday night.