Helen Lauters Retires From Gateway Café

BY ANNE TRAUTNER

JOURNALIST

Gateway Café in Kewaskum is under new ownership. After running the restaurant for nearly 16 years, former owner Helen Lauters has retired.

Matt Seefeldt purchased the restaurant from Lauters on September 30. Seefeldt is not new to the business; he has worked with Lauters since she opened Gateway Café. Prior to that, he worked for about four years at the restaurant, when it was called Silver Platter.

“I am leaving the restaurant in good hands,” Lauters said. “I wish Matt the best, and I know he will do a good job.”

Gateway Café Connections

When Lauters began running the Gateway Café in January 2006, she didn’t know what to expect.

“I have had a lot of support from people from the Kewaskum, Campbellsport and West Bend areas. It’s really been great. I want to give special thanks to everyone who has supported us,” Lauters said.

Lauters said the thing she will miss the most in retirement is seeing all the people at the restaurant.

“I have met a lot of really nice people. People I have made friends with over the years. People who come in every day and sit around the table and drink their coffee and have their breakfast,” Lauters said.

She will miss seeing those regular customers.

“Kissy (Richard Kissinger) is one who has come in every morning for a cup of coffee. Every morning, religiously. Even through the pandemic, he came in every morning. If there was a day you didn’t see him come, you wondered whether Kissy was sick or what happened to him,” Lauters said. “He has supported us well.”

Lauters also has enjoyed seeing the group of regulars that has come to Gateway every Tuesday morning.

“When they started coming right after I opened, there must have been about 14 of them. Every Tuesday, they would come in and have coffee and they would eat a little breakfast and they would sit here for a few hours and chat. Every year, it would become a little less, and now we are down to two people. And those two ladies come in every Tuesday, and they sit at the table and chat,” Lauters said.

“For a lot of those people, I ended up catering their funerals,” Lauters added. “So, you get to see a lot of how life goes.”

Supporting Local Businesses

Over the years, Gateway Café has received support from other local businesses.

“Kevin Scheunemann is a great supporter of us, and I of his. Every Friday night, when Diane [Schneider, who also is retiring from Gateway] and I get done frying fish, we have to go to Dairy Queen and have a Blizzard. I guess we will miss our Friday night Blizzards, but we can always go Friday during the day instead,” Lauters said.

Dealing with the pandemic was the most difficult challenge Lauters faced during years running the restaurant.

“That was a rough time. We didn’t know from one day to the next if we were going to bring in enough to keep the lights on. That was hard,” Lauters said.

But Gateway Café received help from the community.

“Last year during the pandemic, Kettle Moraine Town & Country collected tips and brought them into us. A couple times they dropped off a couple hundred dollars. I was really quite impressed with the way that some of the people supported what we had going on,” Lauters said.

The support helped Gateway to persevere.

“We stayed open every day through the pandemic. We cut our hours, but we stayed open,” Lauters said.

Although she will continue to help with catering, Lauters will miss working with the Gateway staff on a regular basis.

“I have seen so many people go in and out that I have had as employees, people that I really hated to see leave. For some, on their last day, it was difficult for both of us to hold on,” Lauters said.

There have been four employees who have worked with Lauters since she started Gateway Café: Seefeldt, Diane Schneider, Lisa Adlemeyer and Kate Limberg.

“They have been very supportive; they have been here for me throughout the whole thing,” Lauters said.

Family Help

Over the years, Lauters received help from her family. Her husband, Dan, who passed away last year, helped with maintenance at the restaurant.

Her daughter, Kate Limberg, has been a regular employee at the restaurant. Her two sons, Louie Lauters and Dan Lauters Jr., were always there whenever she needed help.

And all three of Lauters’ grandsons have helped Lauters at the restaurant on a regular basis whenever she needed help: Eric (25), Justin (22) and Nic (20).

Although Lauters will miss seeing the people, she is looking forward to retirement.

“Before Dan had passed away, he told me to sell the restaurant and enjoy my life, and so that is what I’m going to do,” Lauters said.

Helen Lauters is retiring after running Gateway Café in Kewaskum for 16 years. The restaurant will continue serving the community under new owner Matt Seefeldt. PHOTO BY ANNE TRAUTNER