Sonny Osterberg

In the current issue of Senior Perspective, Sonny Osterberg is smiling at you. A large photo of Sonny accompanies a nice story about Sonny. Senior Perspective isn't online yet but the publisher, Jim Palmer, was kind enough to email me the article to share with Rotarians.

Senior Perspective, 11/14/07

by Teri Blair

Mention the name Osterberg anywhere near Alexandria, and a second word immediately accompanies it: cafe.  The main street restaurant was a local fixture for decades.  Richard Osterberg was its first owner, and in time, three of his sons shared a partnership.  Sonny was the youngest of the Osterberg boys, and still makes his home in Alexandria.  Named after his father, Sonny has never been able to shake his boyhood nickname.  “I tried to get people to call me Richard when I started 7th grade.  But they had always called me Sonny, and that’s the name that stuck.”  At 16 he began running the ice cream counter at Osterberg's, and 50 years later he was working a charcoal grill at the Fireside.  The restaurant business was as natural to Sonny as breathing.

The first Osterberg restaurant was not on Broadway in Alexandria, but in nearby Kensington. Sonny’s father suspected he could make a better living a in a larger town, so moved his family and business east in 1921.  His hunch was correct. Business was so good that the senior Osterberg was known to quip in his Norwegian accent, “Eff-ry day in Alexandria is yust like the 4th of Yuly in Kensington!” When the oldest Osterberg son was grown, he decided to strike out on his own and open his own cafe. Later, the two family establishments were combined, and in 1928 the well-remembered Osterberg’s Cafe opened its doors. “I was a soda jerk,” Sonny remembers,  “I was in charge of sundaes, sodas, and the syrups.  It was a messy job, and I had to clean constantly.  I got pretty good at cleaning.”  He worked summers, beginning when he was a sophomore.  “The first year I worked six hours a day, the second it was eight, and after my senior year I worked twelve hours a day, seven days a week.”

After graduating from Central High in 1941, Sonny moved to the Twin Cities to enroll at the University of Minnesota.  “I wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.  When I began they told me the math would be a problem, and by the end of my freshman year I had to admit they were right.”  When Sonny returned as a sophomore, he switched his major to pre-dental.  That plan was foiled, too, as midway through the year Sonny was stricken with a painful outbreak of kidney stones. After three days of tests at Mayo Clinic, surgery was scheduled.  “I didn’t want to stay for that operation,” Sonny recalls.  “Alexandria was in the state basketball tournament, and I had planned on being there to watch the games.  I had to listen to the tournament from my hospital room in Rochester.”

The surgery forced Sonny to miss the 3rd quarter of classes, and he came back to Alexandria to recuperate and work for his dad.  Since he was no longer at the U of M, he became eligible for the draft.  Sonny set his sights on the Air Force.  He passed the written test, but when the doctor saw his scar from surgery, he was immediately eliminated.  Sonny learned that a potential soldier had to be seven years without a kidney stone to be considered for duty.  “The doctor asked me what I would do if I was a sergeant with four or five guys depending on me and I had an attack,” he remembers.  “It was rough.  I came back to Alexandria and wandered the streets.  I looked as healthy as any other young man, but couldn’t enlist.  I really wanted to be in the service, and it would have been so good for me.”

Life back home wasn’t entirely without its bright spots, however.  A young woman named Helen had taken a job at Osterberg’s, and she and Sonny began to date.  “I never went back to the U,” Sonny smiles.  “I met Helen, and, well, we just wanted to get married.”

At nearly the same time, the pipeline was being built in town and the company was looking for a chemist.  Sonny had enough science credits to apply, but his Dad encouraged him to join the family business.  Sonny’s two older brothers (Tony and Leanor) were partners with their father, and Sonny’s dad offered to sell him his third of the cafe.  Sonny agreed, and the three brothers shared ownership of the restaurant for thirteen years.  “It was a good business, but all I did was sleep and work. I was still the little brother, so you know how that goes,” Sonny winks. Sonny and Helen had their own young family, and decided to buy a restaurant in Fergus Falls.  “It frankly didn’t go very well. In Fergus Falls you have to live there twenty years before you’re considered a native.  If I had known Norwegian like my dad it would have been helpful,” Sonny chuckles.  “After four years we sold out and came back home.”

Sonny sold insurance, and briefly leased a small diner.  Then the Fireside Restaurant (now Weston Station near Nelson) came up for sale, and Sonny got interested.  “I only had $5,000 to put down, but the seller was willing to work with me.”  A deal was made, and the original owner stayed on to teach Sonny the specialty of the restaurant: charcoal grilling.  He started with steak and shrimp, and eventually became an expert at grilling lobster and walleye pike.  He had an itch to buy an old railroad dining car, and eventually located one.  It was added to the complex, significantly increasing the size of the restaurant to include a bar.  Sonny owned and operated The Fireside Restaurant for 27 years before selling it to its current owner, Mark Weston.  Mark turned around and promptly hired Sonny as a baker.

Sonny isn’t just a restaurant man, however. His other love is music. He has been a popular soloist at weddings and public gatherings since he was a boy. “Music really has been the joy of my life,” Sonny remarks,  “my voice has meant everything to me.” A choir director discovered his talent when he was only eight.  “She didn’t waste any time putting me in front of the congregation to sing a solo,” he laughs.  He began as a clear soprano, and when his voice changed, he ended a tenor.  “I could hit the G above Middle C,” Sonny smiles.  “And I don’t mean quietly, I could really belt it out!”  When it comes to songs, Sonny has no trouble listing his favorites.  “I like The Lord’s Prayer, The 23rd Psalm, and Ava Maria for church,” Sonny begins,  “and outside of church music I’d pick My Funny Valentine, You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby, and I Left My Heart in San Francisco.”  Tony Bennett tops his list of performers.

At 84, Sonny is fully retired and living with Helen, his wife of 60 years.  “The thing I liked best about running a restaurant was when I was on the grill.  That’s where I was really comfortable. I still cook at home, and I bake, too. But now when we go out to eat, my favorite food is definitely Chinese.”