Fork in the Road : Remote Eatery Faces Hazy Future

Seventeen years ago, a few miles east of the Three Points Cafe, Donald Lien saw Bigfoot scurry across the road. Honest.

Today, perched upon a bar stool, he’ll even show you a plaster cast of the hairy beast’s footprint.

Lien’s colorful tale is old news among the regulars at this rural cafe, a combination tavern, short-order eatery and country market nestled next to the remote junction of Pine Canyon and Three Points roads.

For more than half a century, the Three Points Cafe has been the only public meeting place in this scenic, sparsely populated settlement at the northwestern edge of Los Angeles County. High-desert ranchers, bikers and refugees from smog-choked city neighborhoods have sauntered into the cafe for beer, burgers and banter.

In recent months, however, this local landmark has approached its own fork in the road.

Burdened by health problems, the owners of the Three Points Cafe put it up for sale in November. While awaiting a buyer, the owners have been opening the once-bustling business just two afternoons a week. Two prospective sales have collapsed, but a third is being negotiated, leaving some patrons concerned about the future of this rugged outpost.

“I hope they don’t turn it into an ice cream parlor,” sighed Jim Bowman, a longtime resident of Three Points.

The cafe’s origins are as hazy as its future.

On the barroom wall are some old black-and-white photos from the early days of the business, including one depicting its first owner and builder, the late Bert Gookins. Gookins’ grandson, a Three Points resident named Bill Hart, isn’t clear on when it was built.

“Some say 1912, some say 1924--I think it was just a grocery store at that time,” Hart said as he sipped a Pepsi at the bar one recent Sunday afternoon. Hart, 54, believes that the restaurant and bar were added in the 1930s or ‘40s.

Today, eight stools with well-worn, red vinyl seats are lined up against the bar. The dining area has four tables, covered with red-checkered tablecloths. The grocery counter is now stocked mostly with snack foods, including popcorn and candy.

An old-fashioned gasoline pump in front of the cafe has not been used for almost a decade. But a library bin by the pump still allows residents to drop off volumes for pickup by a bookmobile serving the rural area.

Just outside the cafe are picnic tables and a small bandstand for entertainment. Behind the business is a two-bedroom apartment for the owner or operator.

The cafe is the only business in Three Points, a loosely knit, unincorporated community about 35 miles northwest of Palmdale. The town is one of the last stops along a county road leading to the Golden State Freeway near Gorman. An old sign puts the population at 150, but longtime residents insist that the figure should at least be doubled.

In recent years, many people who work in Los Angeles, particularly in the movie and television industries, have purchased homes in and around Three Points to escape the noise and congestion of the city.

That was the appeal to the cafe’s present owners, Michael and Anita Felix. They were living in the Carson area in the early 1980s when they got a glimpse of the cafe and answered the call of the wild.

“We drove through and fell in love with the place,” Anita Felix recalled. “It’s for people who have dreams, who like being away from the city.”

The Felixes liked the idea of running their own mom-and-pop business and putting aside the profits for their retirement years. In 1984, Michael Felix quit his $80,000-a-year job as a marine machinist, and the couple bought the cafe.

One of their goals was to make it a family-oriented focal point for the community, using the park-like grounds next to the bar for special events and a small greenhouse for a meeting room.

“We had Easter egg hunts here. We had Santa Claus at Christmas. Halloween parties . . . ,” said Anita Felix, now 65. “We had Girl Scout meetings, horse club meetings. We even had A. A. meetings in the greenhouse.”

Although they hired some help, the couple underestimated the demands of running a busy watering hole from 10 a.m. to midnight each day, taking breaks only to buy supplies in nearby Lancaster.

“Sometimes I had to run the people out at 2 a.m.,” recalled Michael Felix, 63. “You make it your life.”

The stress took its toll when Anita Felix suffered a heart attack in December, 1986. A helicopter took her from Three Points to a hospital in Lancaster.

In the years since, the Felixes have leased the cafe to three other operators. The last leaseholder changed its name to Nancy’s Up the Road Cafe, and even after resuming control of the place, the Felixes have not bothered to paint over the sign.

In recent years, it has attracted a diverse, occasionally rowdy crowd, said Bowman, an electronics technician who’s been coming to the cafe since 1978.

“Sorry to say, we do have our problems with people who use drugs, and some drunks, but it’s pretty quiet, mostly,” he said.

A few brawls have erupted around the pool table.

“You see fists fly every once in a while when someone’s told to leave and they don’t want to,” said Bowman, 46, who was reading a Sunday paper while nursing a nonalcoholic beer. “There are some big old boys around here. Usually, the neighbors pitch in and restrain the person.”

Another regular customer is Anna Dozier, an 80-year-old retired nurse who sometimes sells her drawings of horses at the cafe for $5 apiece.

“It’s a place to come and talk,” she said, seated beside a glass of white wine. “It doesn’t have the old pot-bellied stove you read about in the Old West, but it’s practically the same thing. It’s a place to come and gossip.”

Yet another familiar face is that of Lien, a 61-year-old unemployed truck driver who didn’t have much luck cashing in on his close encounter with Bigfoot.

Soon after he said he spotted the creature outside the town of Lake Hughes, just east of the cafe, Lien affixed a yellow-and-black “Bigfoot Crossing” decal to the side of his blue Ford pickup. He ordered T-shirts and sweat shirts that said: “Bigfoot--Alive and Well in Lake Hughes, Calif.” He didn’t sell many, however, blaming a meager marketing budget.

Nevertheless, over a cold beer at the Three Points bar, he insisted that his sighting of a creature, more than seven feet tall and weighing more than 450 pounds, really happened.

“I’ve talked to probably half a dozen people who’ve seen him around here, but most people don’t want to say anything about it,” Lien said. “You start getting ridiculed. They start singing, ‘Looney Toons.’ ”

Lately, Lien and the other regulars haven’t been able to spend much time trading stories in the Three Points Cafe.

Since the Felixes, who now live 65 miles away in Bakersfield, resumed managing the cafe in November, it’s only been open Saturday and Sunday afternoons, just enough to keep its alcohol and food license valid.

Usually, Michael Felix serves the sandwiches and drinks. Anita, who still has heart problems, works in the kitchen aided by the couple’s daughter, Connie Marcon.

The Felixes have removed the pool table, hoping to restore some of the family atmosphere, but they haven’t sunk much money into maintenance. Their $185,000 listing price includes the cafe and about nine acres of surrounding land, some of it steep and not suitable for building.

Their latest prospective buyer, John Mayon, 45, of Newhall, said he isn’t bothered by the cafe’s peeling red paint and shares the Felixes’ old-fashioned vision.

“My dream is to go back to the basics,” he said, “the country fairs, have some music, let the 4-H (clubs) use the property.”

If the sale goes through, Mayon, a Hollywood videotape technician, said he’ll change the name to Three Points: Legends of the West, and add more picnic tables, a swap meet, large barbecue and “mini-rodeo.”

He said he first dreamed of creating such a place 13 years ago and recently asked a real estate agent to help him find a location.

“This was the last place we looked at,” Mayon said. “I wanted more property, but I fell in love with this place. It’s not being encroached on by civilization.”

Mayon said he’s lined up several entertainment-industry colleagues as investors and possible co-workers at the cafe. His four children also want to help out.

Because the two previous deals fell through, Anita Felix is not getting her hopes too high while waiting for escrow to close with Mayon.

“I learned when I left here in a helicopter not to get too excited,” she said. “This is a good place and, sooner or later, someone who belongs here will take it.”