{"id":66830,"date":"2019-08-06T19:46:31","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T01:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/owners-selling-tuning-fork-cafe-in-bayfield\/"},"modified":"2019-08-07T01:46:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T01:46:31","slug":"owners-selling-tuning-fork-cafe-in-bayfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/owners-selling-tuning-fork-cafe-in-bayfield\/","title":{"rendered":"Owners selling Tuning Fork Cafe in Bayfield"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tim
Tim and Kellie Lillyquist built the Tuning Fork Cafe in Bayfield from the ground up, but as of late July, they\u2019re ready to sell it.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

BAYFIELD \u2013 Tuning Fork Cafe is the only coffee shop in downtown Bayfield. It\u2019s a meeting place for business partners, a stopping point for tourists and a gathering place for the community.<\/p>\n

As of late July, it\u2019s also up for sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bittersweet. It\u2019s sad to walk away from something you\u2019ve created from the ground up,\u201d said Tim Lillyquist, co-owner of the cafe.<\/p>\n

The Tuning Fork, a mainstay of the Bayfield restaurant scene since it opened in 2012, isn\u2019t closing. Owners Tim and Kellie Lillyquist are looking for a buyer who will keep the cafe the way it is, or as close as possible. The Lillyquists hope to complete the sale by January 2020, but they\u2019re ready to keep the doors open for as long as it takes to find the right buyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very appreciative of the town and how they\u2019ve supported us, that\u2019s why our goal is to not change anything about our restaurant,\u201d Tim Lillyquist said. The couple plan to sell the business as is, including the name, brand and recipes.<\/p>\n

When the couple built Tuning Fork, they spent months gutting the building then re-creating the space. Now, the Lillyquists are selling the cafe because they want to reset their work-life balance, reconnect to their family and interests, and have a few adventures along the way. Tim, a musician, wants to invest more time in his band while Kellie plans to spend more time doing art.<\/p>\n

\"The
The Tuning Fork Cafe in Bayfield, the town\u2019s only downtown coffee shop, has had a for sale sign in the window since late July.<\/span>Shannon Mullane\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWe\u2019re here six days a week, so it just kind of takes a toll on your health and your social life,\u201d Kellie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just kind of looking to get our lives back,\u201d Tim said.<\/p>\n

On most mornings when customers enter the restaurant, they\u2019ll see regulars, Bob Adam and Ron Penning, sitting by the door drinking coffee. They are the kind of customers who know every ingredient in their favorite dishes, the ones who have been coming to the restaurant for years, Monday through Saturday, Adam said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sad to see them go. It\u2019ll be hard to replace them as far as cooking,\u201d Adam said. \u201cBut we\u2019re going to follow them. We\u2019re gonna go to their house for breakfast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even while ready to move on, Kellie Lillyquist had some reservations. They know their customers will be sad, but that is why they are looking for the right person to take over.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a great seven-plus years. We definitely have some wonderful customers,\u201d Kellie said. \u201cI\u2019m going to miss them a lot, but I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll bump into them here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Adam has his way, she might even bump into them in her own kitchen.<\/p>\n

smullane@ durangoherald.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kellie Lillyquist built restaurant from ground up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,28,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-headlines","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66830"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}