by Ed Sawicki - January 25, 2023

In 2007, Joe Cannata moved from the Seattle, Washington area to Leavenworth, Washington, a Bavarian-styled village in the Cascade Mountains. Joe is the son of Elizabeth Cannata of Connecticut and the grandson of Hattie Pogozelski nee Strauss. In May of 2016, he purchased an established decades-old diner in Coles Corner along US Highway 2—about 13 miles from downtown Leavenworth and 4 miles from Lake Wenatchee.

The diner burned down in 2016, so Joe put a food truck on the property and ordered a new diner from a company in Georgia.

The diner was delivered in sections in 2018 by five tractor trailer trucks. The convoy of trucks bearing sections of a shiny new diner passed through downtown Leavenworth and Joe made sure it was a media event. He dressed in an Elvis costume, rode on one of the trucks for a time, and ran along side the rest. The video made the TV news in Seattle.

The new diner is about 30% larger than the old, since it has a second dining room. Here's a photo of the diner taken within the last minute:

Leavenworth

In spite of Joe living in the Seattle area since 1990, I first met him when I visited Leavenworth in February 2019. My cousin Linda Colgan O'Rear was also there visiting her son Travis, his partner Anna, and her grandchild. Travis and Anna worked at the 59er Diner for a season.

Linda's granddaughter, Harriet, was there as well. She's adorable—and smart. I tried to convince her that honey came from butterflies, but she wasn't buying it.

Spending a night on the town with Joe Cannata is quite an experience. We hit most bars in Leavenworth and had one drink in each before moving to the next. He knew most people everywhere we went.

When we went to the second bar, the people there shouted, “Eddie Sawicki!” At the first bar, Joe had excused himself and left Linda and I talking. He went to the second bar and told them that when he later walked in, they were to shout my name.

I haven't been called Eddie since I was a kid, but that's the name Joe always heard when he was growing up. So, I was Eddie for the rest of my visit.

Joe has a snowmobile rental business as well, and one day we rode them into the mountains. It was my first time riding one. On the way back, I slowed down to increase the distance with Linda, then I opened it up, and hit 45 mph on a straightaway.