Fans of a popular restaurant in Turner Valley are arriving in town looking for international dishes made with locally grown meat and produce, only to be disappointed.

On May 30 Black Diamond residents Lanny and Mark Klaudt, owners of The Route 40 Soup Company, closed the restaurant’s doors after five years.

In 2005 Lanny and Mark Klaudt opened in Turner Valley. Since then, the restaurant has drawn customers from near and far to sit down to homemade soups, entrees and ice cream inspired by the couple’s interest in creating global flavours with local ingredients picked fresh.

The building now sits empty, joining the list of vacant buildings on Turner Valley’s main street.

“It was a really tough decision because we felt like we had really made an impact on the community and we know we’re a destination site,” Lanny said.

The Klaudts began the decision-making process one year ago.

Their lease on the restaurant space was due to expire and they faced a rent increase.

It was time to assess where they were at with the business and where they wanted to go in the future.

They had just come through a rocky year in 2008 with sales dropping 15 per cent as the recession gained momentum, although sales normalized in 2009. Sales from the soup they sold at farmers’ markets, including the Millarville market, were more robust and less complicated than revenue from the restaurant.

They decided that if they closed the restaurant and focused on selling soup at farmers’ markets and offering house-party cooking classes, they could spend more time cultivating their garden of ingredients and sharing their philosophy of slow food made with local meat and produce.

“Catering for a group of eight people in a local home, that’s the type of thing we want to do,” she said. “To go into people’s homes and show them what they can do with food. We’ve gained all this knowledge and we want to show people what can be done and we couldn’t do that before, because we were always running.”

Chives are among the many herbs Lanny and Mark Klaudt are growing in their garden to use in soups, cooking classes and catering. photo by Tamara Neely

Lanny and Mark realize that closing the restaurant is leaving a hole in Turner Valley, but they have to look after their own needs.

“In January of 2006 John Gilchrist picked us as the best new restaurant in the Calgary and south-of-Calgary area,” Mark said. “That was huge for us and great for the town. It opened up a lot of eyes to what was happening in both Turner Valley and Black Diamond and brought a lot of traffic out here for us and for everybody.”

The loss could impact other businesses in town.

“There were 7,000 people per year that would eat at our place. Take that out of the mix of people not stopping in town,” Mark said. “It’ll have a bit of an impact.”

However, traffic will continue to flow through Turner Valley. There are plenty of natural draws to the area, being on Highway 22 and at the gateway to the Kananaskis. In 2003 the Klaudts found an average of 5,000 cars came through the four-way stop over a summer weekend.

“The traffic always comes through town, but there’s not a lot of business to stop it,” Mark said. “It seems like everybody is evacuating the town. There’s got to be a dynamic that the council is hitting that people don’t want to stay there and I can’t put a finger on it, whether it’s taxes or bylaws. There’s got to be bits and pieces that irritate everybody.”

Mark said the Town’s approach to signage was a problem for him and other business owners he has spoken to feel the same.

“You pay your business licence, then you pay for a sandwich board, then you can only put it here or there,” Mark said. “The Town made it difficult and it created a bit of animosity between business owners vying for business. You’re the council, you have the option to change bylaws. It seems like sometimes council is inflexible.”

Mark said being a bedroom community adds another difficulty for businesses. Money is spent in Calgary during the workday, he said.

His suggestion is to try and change that dynamic.

He has seen similar sized towns in Texas address the issue by encouraging small-scale manufacturers to move into town. Companies that would produce o-rings, he said, and make pockets for jeans, as an example.

Lanny Klaudt waters tomatoes in her greenhouse. With Route 40 Soup Company closed, the Klaudts have more time to share their philosophy of gardening and cooking for healthy lives, environment and communities. photo by Tamara Neely

“The Texas government would offer tax breaks for the companies to come out to these small towns and maybe they hire just 50 people, but those people live in that town,” Mark said. “So creating the situation where people live in town, work in town and spend money in town. You’ve got to get away from that bedroom community feel. If you want to get people out here that will stay, we need to encourage that business model.”

Meanwhile, fans of the Route 40 Soup Company are learning that the business is closed.

“We’re not just talking a mild disappointment,” Mark said. “You feel like we’ve taken their youngest child away, but it’s an evolution.”

Turner Valley resident Grant Sinclair is weathering the loss.

“It’s a sad thing,” said Sinclair. “It was tremendous to have such a lovely little restaurant to share with friends, friends who think Turner Valley isn’t metropolitan. They are impressed with the Route 40 restaurant, so I’m sad that it’s gone.”

However, Sinclair is optimistic that more business will spring up in town.

“It shows the town’s Main Street is a little empty, but I think that’s temporary,” said Sinclair. “With the (new) library and future development and the economy picking up, I think Main Street will follow naturally. People will eventually recognize this town as a valuable place to be.”

Diamond Valley Chamber of Commerce president Randal Williamson said the loss is a hit all businesses in the area feel.

“Are we bothered by losing Route 40? Absolutely,” said Williamson. “Because we know on some level it will have an impact on our town and other businesses.

“There was a certain clientele attracted to that restaurant and there’s spin off. The customers would have gotten gas, went to the park, they may have gone to see Seclusion Valley, which helps the developer, and maybe they would have seen how close Turner Valley is to Kananaskis.”

In the three weeks since Route 40’s doors have been closed, Williamson has already seen the impact.

“We’ve had people come in and asking questions about Route 40 at the Visitors’ Information Centre (in Turner Valley),” said Williamson. “They’ve driven in with the interest of going there to have lunch and these people were quite surprised (it’s closed).”

For more information about the catering, cooking classes and soup Mark and Lanny Klaudt are now offering through Route 40 Soup Company, contact them by email at klaudtmark@gmail.com

tneely@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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