Just south of the Tatge building is a small building that, in Ramona’s early days, served as the post office in Ramona. When the post office relocated to a building on the west side of the street, Jess Oyster converted the building into a restaurant.

The Albrights had been operating the restaurant in the late 1940s and had closed the business, so the owner of the building was looking for a buyer. Harold and Betty Ohm purchased the property on March 21, 1952, just days before they got married on April 3. Betty opened the restaurant/bar herself when she arrived in Ramona—she was barely 19.

The Ohms turned this structure into their home, eventually raising their three daughters there—and turned their front room into what became affectionately know as “Ramona’s living room.” The cafe was the social hub of Ramona.

 

In 1952 there were 14 businesses in town, besides our cafe: Strickler’s Mercantile, Curly’s Barbershop, Lizzie Mohn’s cream station, Oscar Applegate’s real estate office, Grover Anderson’s grocery store, Jack Anderson’s post office/hardware store (in the same building). There was the bank, the central telephone office, a gas station owned by Henry Albright, Marie Hicks’s liquor store, Alvin Sader’s television repair shop, the Sader Café, the elevator, and the train depot.

Betty Ohm: (From an interview in the Ramona News, 2006)

Betty and Harold retired from the restaurant business in 2000. They stayed in Ramona, moving to a house on Second Street. The restaurant was sold at auction to Jeannie Weber Goza, who operated her own restaurant, Cheers II, for several years. This little historical building still stands on the east side of main street; it’s used as a residence.

Ramona has been blessed with many restaurant owners through the years: Clarence Neis, Ira Miller, Ezra Riffel, Shorty Mortimer, Wilbur Liddell, Ray Kramer, Dale Sondergard, Harry & Georgia Berger, Pete & Hannah Sader, Greg & Lori Stenzel, Harold & Betty Ohm, Jeannie Goza, Reign and Marlene Anduss.