50 years of 'just coffee' at TacoTime

TACOMA, Wash. - Every morning, rain or shine, Helen Fote rides a bus down Sixth Avenue for her morning cup of coffee.

TacoTime employees have come to know the 92-year-old, as they should - she's been stopping in for her daily cup of  "just coffee" for more than 50 years.

The first TacoTime opened next to the University of Oregon in 1960. Two years later, its first franchise location opened in Tacoma.

Some days Fote arrives around the time the restaurant opens at 10:30 a.m. Other days she's a little early, but simply raps on the window to be let in.

Owner Steve Nelson says the restaurant has other regular customers, but there's "nobody like Helen."

"[There's] nobody that we can count on or that we would feel good about just letting in any time," he says.

Fote is so devoted that when the restaurant moved a mile down Sixth Avenue in April to its new address at 2915 Sixth Avenue, she was willing to alter her morning routine of walking two blocks, instead becoming a regular bus rider.

"I was kind of worried when they were moving, because I didn't know how I was going to get here," Fote said.

Nelson and his staff helped Fote map out the bus route, and made sure she had a bus pass - which she now keeps at the ready on a lanyard around her neck.

Nelson also told Fote that if she kept coming in, her morning coffee would be on him for the rest of her life.

TacoTime was closed for just one day while it moved locations. Staff spent the day in between moving and preparing the new space for customers. The restaurant was closed to the public, but staff opened for Fote when she stopped in for coffee.

Fote doesn't mind the trek - the new restaurant is a little farther away, but an upgrade in size.

"I like this place better," she says. "[It's] a beautiful space."

The restaurant is closed just two days each year, on Christmas day and Thanksgiving. Those dates aside, staff expect to see Fote every morning.

"I tell ya, if she misses a day, the crew here worries about her. They say 'where's Helen today?'" Nelson says.

Wednesday morning he stopped to chat with Helen while she drank her coffee. Next Wednesday is a holiday, July 4, and he wanted to make sure she knew the restaurant would be opening later than usual at 11 a.m. so she should plan to stop in around 10:30 a.m.

"We love having her here," says Nelson. "It's nice to have some things in life you can count on."