The Double Horseshoe Cafe

Probably no area on the Kalakala is as well remembered as the famed Double Horseshoe Café, located on the promenade deck. A full service restaurant, the Double Horseshoe Café featured classic Art Deco counter stools arranged outside and inside of the horseshoe-shaped counter. Waitresses served patrons on either side from a service aisle that ran through the center of the horseshoe counter.

KALAKALA's restaurant was the pride of the Black Ball Line. George Bayless Collection

Additional seating was available in four triangular-shaped booths in each corner of the room. The lunch counter and tables were finished with hard rubber tops and trimmed in stainless steel. The room was painted a light tan color with darker brown draperies. Upholstery on the seats and counter stools was a dark reddish-brown. Washington State Ferries would later reupholster the seats with their trademark green.

The Double Horseshoe Cafe was a triumph of Art Deco design. Asahel Curtis Photograph, Washington State Historical Society

The cooking was all done electrically, the first for any vessel in the fleet. Diners could feast on a full breakfast of a ham and eggs with toast and potatoes for 75¢ in 1946, with coffee costing and additional 10¢. For lunch or dinner, sugar cured ham with potatoes would set you back 55¢, or you could opt for a bowl of chili with crackers for 25¢. Pie a la mode for dessert would be another 25¢.

Some of the strongest memories of revolve around the gallery; an anxious little girl now in her 40's recalling how she would wait for the Kalakala to sail into to Bremerton so she could rush up the stairs with her father to get a special cup of hot cocoa in one of the ferry's heavy-handled cups, or the commuter from the 40's that remembers coffee being sold in the half cup because the vessel's teeth-chattering vibration would slosh the coffee out of the cup otherwise.

By the 1960's only the outer ring of seating was open. The inner horseshoe became a fast-food service bar. Chris Novotny Photograph, Kalakala Foundation Archives

The years in Alaska took their toll on the room. For years the counter remained in place, but it was eventually torn out until only the bolts where the stools once stood remained. The focus of restoration recently, years of neglect have been stripped from the walls. The windows have been replaced, and primer and paint have been applied to the walls and original galley doors.

The restoration plans include the return of the Double Horseshoe Café to its original art deco grander along with its boisterous bustle and engaging patronage.