Community rallies behind Steve’s Sportsmans Café as rising costs threaten beloved Mariposa restaurant

By Dan Tucker

Running a small business in rural California is never easy. Running a restaurant in Mariposa, where every delivery costs more, every utility bill lands harder and every empty table is felt, can be a battle for survival.

For Steve Knauf, owner of Steve’s Sportsmans Café on Woodland Drive, that battle has become deeply personal after 13 years of serving meals, hosting fundraisers and trying to keep the doors open for the community he and his wife, Jen, call home.

“We operate on such a small margin, it just takes one extra hit and the wheels start to fall off,” Knauf said. “When we first opened we were running a 12 to 15 percent margin, and even that was pretty tight. Now we’re at 5 to 7 percent and our food cost is a killer. For a while I was paying more for the tomato on a BLT than the bacon.”

A PG&E bill that often tops $3,000 a month, rising payroll and sales taxes, soaring food prices and a soft economy have all tightened around the café like a vise. In a mountain community where fuel costs ripple through nearly every delivery, Knauf said the pressure can feel relentless.

“When diesel prices go up, everything goes up, especially up here,” he said.

But this is Mariposa County, where neighbors have long memories and generosity often travels faster than bad news.

For more than a decade, Knauf has opened his restaurant to fundraisers for community organizations across the county. Those years of giving back were not forgotten. Alexis Fairchild, a longtime patron, decided to set up a GoFundMe account for Steve and Jen after seeing the strain the business was under.

“Alexis told us that there have been so many people we had touched over the years that people would remember,” Knauf said. At first, he and Jen resisted the idea. “We told her we wanted to think about it. I didn’t even know you could do it for a business. After we discussed it, Jen and I were both against it, completely against it, but by the time we contacted Alexis, it was already up and running.”

Now, Knauf said, the couple is grateful. “In hindsight, we’re really glad people stepped up, or we might not have opened the doors next month.”

“I’m really humbled by the whole process,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of donations for $20, and that really touches my heart.”

Knauf said the challenges facing the restaurant extend beyond the balance sheet. Staffing has become unpredictable, he said, and the lingering effects of the COVID-era economy continue to weigh on customers who are making harder choices with every paycheck.

“We’ve had people walk out in the middle of a shift, and some who quit with no notice at all,” Knauf noted. “I blame the government for a lot of it. Why would they work when the government will pay for almost everything? There doesn’t seem to be a desire to work anymore. That’s nothing like the world I grew up in.”

“People don’t have any expendable income right now,” Knauf said. “It can be a decision whether to take the family out and buy four dinners or put fuel in the tank to get to work next week. The dollars just don’t stretch that far.”

It wasn’t just the GoFundMe account that has boosted them over the hump. On Sunday, July 26, a taco fundraiser was hosted at Steve’s by Lupe Camorlinga and Junior Gomez of L&J Mexican Food and it sold out in just two hours. Irma Camorlinga of Icing & Company chipped in too, and Shelly and Gordon Dulcich provided the big AC unit to keep everyone comfortable in the summer heat. According to Jen, “Shelly helped tremendously, and it was a big hit with everyone who attended.”

He knows the struggle is not his alone. Friends in the restaurant business, especially in Merced, are facing the same squeeze. Still, the response from Mariposa has brought a measure of hope. “Some of my buddies in the restaurant business are really getting hammered,” Knauf shared.

“We had a really good week last week,” Knauf said, crediting the community awareness. “But you just don’t know how long it will last.”

Through it all, Steve and Jen have tried to keep the café affordable for working families. Sunday nights feature a $10 a plate pasta special. Wednesday’s

Steve Knauf (center) is pictured with a pair of youngsters in 2018 after hosting one of the hundreds of successful community fundraisers during his 13 years of operating Steve’s Sportsmans Cafe.

burger night begins at 5 p.m. for just $12. Monday mornings bring all-you-can-eat pancakes for $5. The café also offers a daily breakfast special until 11 a.m. with two eggs, bacon or sausage and two pancakes for $12.99.

“We want people to be able to bring in a couple of kids and have dinner for four that would be the price for one somewhere else,” Knauf said. Of the pancakes, he added with a smile, “Not many people can eat more than two of our big ones.”

With three years remaining on the lease for the restaurant space next to Woodland Market, Knauf, 66, said he is not ready to quit. The fight has grown harder, but he has not lost the stubborn hope that has carried him this far.

“It’s gonna be a fight,” he said. “But I’ve always been a fighter.”