Cathy Rawson
THE BOOKMARK CAFE

Interview by Catherine Tudor

What is your background?

I was born in the 50s in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to a close-knit family and was the youngest of eight children. Since my brothers and sisters were 12 to 20 years older I was spoiled and I loved the activity of our large family. Someone was always visiting and there were over 40 nieces and nephews visiting along with my siblings and spouses. My mother was always cooking and sometimes we would finish our meal and someone would stop and she would then make another complete meal. On weekends she baked cinnamon rolls and coffee cakes and more. Our house was a place to gather and eat right up until the time my mother died two years ago at 100 years old.

After high school, I worked for an attorney, an accounting firm, was secretary to the Administrator at Grant Wood Area Education Agency and then worked for the U.S. Postal Service for the past 24 years. I worked as a letter carrier, an account representative, was a supervisor in Address Information, supervised the window area and was Postmaster of Ely, Iowa for 13 years until I was offered an early-out in 2005. In addition to work at the Post Office, we have managed an antiques show twice yearly for the past 20 years at Hawkeye Downs Fairgrounds along with two other couples.The show has been very well received with over 100 participating dealers from across the United States.

When did you decide to open a cafe and why?

My husband relocated his antique shop, "The Sanctuary Antique Center" in the spring of 2005 to 7th Avenue in Marion from a large church on 8th Avenue. Since we had considerably less space, we leased the adjoining suite when it came available to house some of his hundreds of books.

We cut a hole in the wall and had an iron gate made to separate the two and then toyed with the idea of a coffee shop, a wine store, a flower shop, a deli and finally we decided to combine a cafe and bookstore. We chose the literary theme because we have decorated with the books which we have for sale and so that the bookstore and cafe would flow together and feed off one another. . . thus "Food for Thought."

Who are a few of your favorite authors?

Louisa May Alcott, Jodi Picoult, Tracy Kidder, Robert Louis Stevenson, Margaret Mitchell, John Steinbeck, Stephen King, Robert Parker, Nathaniel Hawthorne and more. . . I am currently in a book club and we read a wide variety of great books.

How did you arrive at the idea for your different menu items named after famous novelists?

We just picked some of our favorite authors and books. We chose "Dr. Seuss" for a grilled cheese because it could be a good children's sandwich. We chose "Ayn Rand" for the reuben because we thought it flowed well and described it as "A Fountainhead" of corned beef. The "Charles Dickens" salad sounded like a good name for our apple/cranberry salad at Christmas time hence "A Christmas Carol." We chose some of our favorite authors that our customers would recognize and assigned names to the sandwiches we created.

What do you regard as your specialty? What's popular?

I think my specialty is salads and their presentation. The most popular salads are "The Tolstoy" which is a chicken salad on a bed of greens with cashews and "The Charlotte Bronte" which consists of romaine, feta cheese, walnuts, mandarin oranges with rasberry vinaigrette dressing. As far as sandwiches, the most requested are "The Great Gatsby" which combines turkey, apple butter, havarti cheese and green apple slices on a sour dough bread and "The Louisa May Alcott" which is a chicken breast on tomato-foccacia bun with pesto, provolone cheese with your choice of tomato, red onion and green pepper. For breakfast items, the raspberry scones and cinammon rolls have both been very popular.

Your husband owns the Sanctuary antique store that joins your cafe where he sells antiquarian and collectible books. Is there an interest in rare books in the Midwest? Do you offer many books on your Ebay store? Describe a few of the most interesting rare books you are selling right now.

There is an interest in rare books locally and throughout the Midwest. We do offer books on our Ebay store but unfortunately we don't get a chance to list as many as we would like. Right now we have some very rare first editions such as, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway, The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, Of Time and the River by Thomas Wolfe and many more. We also have a large selection of signed, limited-edition books and many rare Oz Books including a first edition Wonderful Wizard of Oz We have some books by local authors, Butterflies of Iowa by Dennis Schlicht, John Downey and Jeffrey Nekolsa ; Vietnam Sons by Dale Kueter; several mysteries by Ed Gorman; and a large collection of books printed in Cedar Rapids by the Torch Press.

What is your goal for your cafe?

My personal goal for the cafe is to make it Marion's version of Iowa City's "Prairie Lights." We have had two book signings and I would love to have more. We encourage book clubs to meet here.

Do you have any other hobbies?

In addition to reading, I love to garden and to travel. We have three children, two of which are still at home and even though they are 18 and 20; they keep us on our toes. Our oldest lives close and has three children of her own and they also keep us busy.

What do you enjoy most about your location in downtown Marion, Iowa?

I like being in the middle of the action--if there is activity, we are usually able to benefit from it.

The Bookmark Cafe is located at:
1120 7th Avenue
Marion, IA 52302

Marion is a certified cultural and entertainment district in Iowa. See the Department of Cultural Affairs for more information.

We hope Prairie Den will be able to hold many literary events at the Bookmark Cafe. That's why we've chosen it for the location of our first event for the Grand Opening of our "Workshops in Progress." We've invited Adam Kempenaar of Filmspotting to speak at an informal dinner on June 29, 2007 from 7 to 9 PM. Tickets will go on sale June 12, 2007.

Are there workshops or events you'd like to teach or attend? Contact us for more information.

Relevant Links:

The Bookmark Cafe Menu

The Sanctuary Antique Store on Ebay

Workshops in Progress

Interview with Adam Kempenaar one of the founders of Filmspotting

More Literary Scenes

Historic Marion, Iowa

One Woman's Writing Retreat

About Catherine Tudor | Electronic Works

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Cathy RawsonTHE BOOKMARK CAFE

Cathy Rawson
THE BOOKMARK CAFE