Cobb >> On Friday night the Cobb community packed into the Village Pub until there wasn’t a seat left in the bar — scarcely room to move. And it was all for the owner’s of Mutt & Jess, Merrilee and Jesse Cahill, who lost their uninsured home in the Valley Fire.
The fundraiser included a $20 donation, a silent auction, live music and, of course, plenty of drinks. Village Pub owner Barbara Flynn organized the affair.
Every business works to prop the other up. The better establishments do, Flynn said, the more the entire community thrives.
The fundraiser caught Merrilee Cahill a little off guard, as she and her husband didn’t hear about the event until it had already been planned. “In a way I was kind of embarrassed because I felt like I don’t deserve this,” she said. “But in the other way … this just kind of shows me how important we are to other people.”
The money made from the event will not only help the Mutt & Jess owners get back on their feet and reopen their popular bakery-restaurant-brew pub, it also will provide them the opportunity to help out others who were also impacted by the fire. One of Merrilee Cahill’s fundraising ideas is a 80s-themed dance party. “I’m hoping that we can pay it forward and find some way to repay the people in our community with this,” she said. “We’re all hurting in one way or another and we’ve all lost something.”
Many in Cobb are in recovery mode from a tragedy no one expected. “We’re still waiting to wake up from our nightmare,” said Flynn. “It’s something that you always fear but you never think it’s going to happen.”
In the early hours of the fire when rumors were running rampant, people thought all of downtown Cobb had been whipped away. Flynn is eternally grateful the reports were false. “I think if it was gone, people wouldn’t want to stay,” she said. “It would have been a ghost town.”
While people are still picking up the pieces, events like Friday’s fundraiser keep everyone in high spirits. “People came out tonight that probably haven’t been out since the fire, because it’s to help somebody,” Flynn said. “A lot of the people that didn’t lose their homes want to absolutely help the people that did.”
Nearly everyone at the event is a friend or acquaintance of the Cahill’s. That’s just the way it is in Cobb. “There’s a lot of people in there and there’s a lot of people I’ve seen once or twice in my restaurant and it’s amazing that they feel that kind of support and connection to us,” said Jesse Cahill. “It kind of blows me away.”
Cobb is an especially tight-knit community, and the Cahill’s think the location might have something to do with it. After all, there’s only one grocery store to shop at and one post office to mail letters. Everyone is always running into one another. “Cobb is an isolated environment from the community, but in an amazing way,” said Jesse Cahill. “We’re up here and we’re by ourselves, but because of that you don’t not know your neighbor, you don’t not know your entire community.”
This is true for seasonal residents as well. Many people who own vacation homes in Cobb are just as much a part of the town as long term residents. In the weeks that they’ve been closed, the Cahill’s have received letters from people in the Bay Area with words of encouragement for their reopening.
“It’s an amazing thing,” Jesse Cahill said.
As a long-time resident of Cobb — 45 years to be exact — Flynn is no stranger to the closeness. “You just develop that sense of community. You know everybody,” she said. “We’re just one big family and like I say, I want us all to succeed. I want our community to stay.”
This sense of unity is precisely why the Cahills chose Cobb for their restaurant. For years they had the idea for Mutt & Jess but they didn’t want to do it anywhere but in the cozy little town, which also happens to be Merrilee Cahill’s hometown. Finally, in December of last year, the building became available, so the Cahills uprooted their lives in Humboldt County to set up shop around the lake.
Many people asked why they didn’t choose Lakeport or the Mount Shasta area, Jesse Cahill’s hometown, where they may have made a higher profit. But they felt only Cobb could give them what they were looking for. “It’s more about being part of a community and being a part of something than it is about just being a restaurant that makes money,” Merrilee Cahill said. “This [the fundraiser] is just proof that our business plan is true. If you put a lot into the community you get a lot back.”
Throughout Friday evening, the Mutt & Jess owners were bombarded with questions about their plans to reopen. “We’ll be back,” was always the answer. “People, I feel like they care as much about us as they do that we come back,” Jesse Cahill said. “Us coming back is some kind of normalcy and that’s very flattering.”
After the Valley Fire destroyed their home, they took their two kids, ages seven and 10, back to Humboldt for “intensive family time” as they began to recover from the fire. But now that they’ve returned, they’re ready to get back to business. “Our employees are like our family too, so it’s been really hard being closed,” Merrilee Cahill said. “They’re as much part of our family as our kids are so it’s been really hard to be far from them, but we’re hoping to get back to it really soon.”
With the funds from Friday evening, they’ll do just that. “It will help us get our restaurant back open and help us get our lives back together and help us get back to being part of the community,” Merrilee Cahill said.
The Cahills are planning to open Mutt & Jess next week or the week after.
When businesses like Mutt & Jess are closed, it has a marked affect on a community like Cobb, where people don’t only live, but work. Many people depend on the area for jobs such as painting houses, cleaning homes and waiting tables, and when that work isn’t there, it’s difficult for everyone. “So it’s nice to get back to being a hub again,” Merrilee Cahill said.
Friday night’s fundraiser is sure to be the first of many to come, if the spirit of the Cobb community is anything to go by. “This is pretty amazing,” said Merrilee Cahill. “Even people who have lost their homes are asking other people, what can I do for you? How can I help you?”
Since Cobb reopened, Flynn has been feeding people for free every night at the Village Pub. She’s also kept Brick Oven Pizza open. The Little Red Schoolhouse has been providing meals, too. And the Cahills plan to do the same. It’s just the Cobb way.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
