by jamie hartford
It used to be that the only place to get a drink in the tiny town of Mosier, Oregon, was at its namesake tavern, where females were forbidden. It stood within eyeshot of the local YWCA, where the townswomen supervised wholesome activities like tap dancing and bingo as the men were free to raise hell in the bar. The Mosier Tavern burned to the ground in 1930s. According to legend, the women of Mosier started the blaze.
The old YWCA building still stands just off exit 69 on Interstate 84. In a fitting tribute, it’s now itself a pub—the Thirsty Woman—named in honor of those fabled women. Set behind a lawn strewn with picnic tables and colorful Adirondack chairs, the 400-square-foot structure that houses the Thirsty Woman, with its weathered wood shingles and corrugated metal siding, could easily be mistaken for the storage shed it was less than two years ago.
Co-owners Debra Mazzoleni and her husband, Barry Rumsey, ran a successful restaurant in Baltimore, Maryland, before relocating to the Columbia Gorge in 2006. They came to the area seeking a place to ride their bikes and raise their two children. When the former Wildflower Café in Mosier went up for sale, they jumped at the chance to make it their own. Along with the main building, which they reopened as the Good River Restaurant, the property included the dilapidated former YWCA…
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Tags: barry rumsey, cafe, debra mazzoleni, exit 69, fire, gorge, mosier
