Restaurant Owner Gave Key To Early Morning Coffee Drinkers

Restaurant Owner Gave Key To Early Morning Coffee Drinkers AG WORLD 34-3-23 Around Pawnee, Ill., there's a group of farmers and retired coal miners who like to get up early in the morning for coffee. How early? Nathaniel "Muck" Sisk, Paul Mottar and friends are up and about by 4 a.m. But, local restaurant owner Alit Kasa opens up at 6 a.m., and that's just not early enough for Sisk and his friends. So about 5 years ago Kasa tossed a restaurant key to Sisk and told the early birds to help themselves. Now Sisk and Mottar arrive a little before 4 a.m. to put on the coffee and wait for their friends. The cooks don't arrive for at least another hour. As farmers and coal miners, Sisk and his friends always got up early to work and just never got out of the habit. Kasa is an immigrant from Moldavia. He has a definite accent to prove it, and he also has an appreciation of his customers. "But I just couldn't get up at 3:30 in the morning," he says. "Sometimes I don't even get to bed until 3 a.m. "Those guys come in early and have their coffee. Then they can go back home and take it easy. I can't do that. So I just gave them the keys. "People are friendly here," says Kasa. "It's no problem to trust them with the keys to my business." Kasa appreciates the people around Pawnee. They've made him feel welcome and he, in turn, feels good about returning the favor. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Nathaniel Sisk, 400 Harrison St., Pawnee, Ill. 62558 (ph 217 625-5891).

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