Blue Moose Cafe building was demolished Tuesday — and then a missing sign returned
Marcy Anderson stood in front of the building where The Blue Moose Cafe used to be. Around 2 p.m. Tuesday, she and her sister Toni reminisced about the cafe that’s been closed for five years.
They remembered the good times, and felt sadness. Anderson dusted off a spot on the nearby concrete where her late dog Charly left a paw print.
Anderson owned the downtown Eagle restaurant from 2000 to 2016. In 2017, the iconic wood-carved sign was stolen. In a 2017 Idaho Statesman article, Anderson asked for help tracking it down.
Four years later, the sign was returned to her — on the same day the building was demolished.
“I thought it was almost surreal,” Anderson said by phone. “I was crying one minute watching the building get knocked down and then the next minute I got this wonderful keepsake back.”
Around 4 p.m. Tuesday, Anderson was picking up a friend. She received a phone call from a number she didn’t recognize. Normally she wouldn’t answer, so she doesn’t know why she picked up this call.
The stranger delivered the news Anderson had anticipated for more than four years: She knew where the sign was.
“We looked at each other like, ‘Wow,’ ” Anderson said of the exchange with her friend in the car.
The sign featured the name of the restaurant in blue paint and hung on the front of the building for 16 years. It remained there even after the restaurant closed. When it was stolen, Anderson said, “Everybody was up in arms.”
In recent years, Anderson has been semi-retired and “just enjoying life,” she said. The former professional golfer travels often to Palm Springs, California, and now plays golf frequently again.
The restaurant property was sold to a developer. Anderson isn’t sure what will come next at the site. The person who tracked down the missing sign was curious, too.
That person began searching for information on the site, and that’s when she came across the 2017 Idaho Statesman article, Anderson said. The woman had seen the sign at someone else’s house. So she dug up Anderson’s phone number and called.
The caller, who Anderson said asked to be anonymous, tipped off Anderson to who had the sign. Anderson then got in touch with police, and the Eagle Police Department helped retrieve it.
Anderson didn’t want to press charges, she said. She simply wanted her sign back. She plans to reward the tipster with cash and already has a spot in her house for where she wants to put the sign once it gets cleaned up a bit.
“It’s Christmastime,” Anderson said, “and it’s kind of a Hallmark miracle story.”
Years ago, the family who lived in the house before it was converted into a restaurant came to visit. Anderson said she was told that a one-month-old baby died upstairs and a spirit may have existed in the building. Later, clairvoyants told Anderson the same.
Anderson described Tuesday as bittersweet. The building was gone, but her sign wasn’t.
“I thought ... somehow that little spirit got the sign back,” Anderson said.
This story was originally published December 2, 2021 at 4:00 AM.
