All in the family as Tony’s Tavern turns 70

While Tony’s Tavern, at 2920 Main Street in Custer, has weathered huge changes to the region and industry, the family that runs it and the philosophy of its founder, Tony Winski, remain the same.

Winski bought the Custer Tavern on U.S. Route 99 in the then-booming logging and shingle-milling town in May 1949. He renamed it Tony’s Tavern and it’s been in his family ever since.

Tony passed away in 1994, and since then his daughter, Tonia McDonald, has run the tavern. Tonia’s daughter Nicole McDonald has worked at the tavern for 21 years and is now a partner in the business. Nicole’s daughter Taylor McDonald – the fourth generation – recently turned 21 and started working at Tony’s. Through it all, the family aims to maintain the roadside tavern in a way that would make Tony proud.

“Tony’s philosophy was everybody should have some place to go,” Tonia said. “On those days where most businesses are closed, such as Christmas, we are open and we are slammed.”

Tony’s is open from 6 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day, and it can be busy at 6 a.m. with burgers sizzling, beer flowing and shift workers from the refineries playing the jukebox.

The family isn’t the only thing that’s familiar to long-time customers. The interior, with its booths, collection of vintage beer cans, neon signs and other beer company wall hangers, has done little to fit such current fashions as raw wood furniture or hanging Edison bulbs.

“There’s no frills or gimmicks here,” Nicole said. “We try to keep the nostalgia the same and the history is important and I think every generation can appreciate that.”

Much of the décor, including two large murals of mountain scenes with waterfalls, fir trees and glaciated peaks, has been on the walls for more than 50 years. There’s a story behind many of the pieces; an unknown artist in need of cash painted the two murals in 1956, Tonia said.

“He was here a week or two and painted the murals and my dad gave him a case of Olympia and $50 bucks or whatever, I don’t know how much, and sent him on his way,” she said.

Tony’s traditions and standards are working, the McDonald family said. On Friday nights, the tavern is packed for the deluxe burger special, when a staff of four might serve 175 burgers.

On weekend nights, there may be a group of 21-year-olds celebrating a birthday next to a group of 80-year-olds, Nicole said.

“Sometimes I catch myself standing here looking at the crowd and thinking, how many places can you go and see a crowd like this coexist and have such a good time?” she said. “I’m really proud of this place and our staff.”

That success comes despite decades of change.

When the original Tony bought the place and moved his family into an apartment in the back, Custer was a different place. The tavern is on Portal Way, which was U.S. Route 99, the main north-south highway through western Washington. Tonia McDonald remembers the road being so busy it was hard to cross on foot, and many travelers would stop by for food and drinks. Compared to those days, Portal Way is pretty quiet now.

Gambling has always been a part of Tony’s, and it was once all that the little tavern needed to stay afloat.

“After my grandpa passed away we went through some of the cabinets and we found notebooks where they kept track of what people were gambling,” Nicole said. “It got to be high stakes where people were putting up livestock, cars, boats.”

Pull-tabs have long been the most popular form of gambling at Tony’s. The tavern still has a tradition of tossing pull-tabs on the floor, and 30 years ago they could pile up two-feet deep, Nicole said.

“It used to be that pull-tabs were the money maker and that’s all we had to worry about,” she said. “We were normally top ten in the region for pull-tab sales for many, many years.”

That dried up when casinos came to the region. The state smoking ban shook up life at Tony’s in 2005. Fluctuations in the Canadian dollar have added more stress to the business over the years.

The McDonalds deal with it all by doubling down and focusing on all aspects of the business, from the food to the customer service.

“We pay attention to every part of it,” Nicole said. “People come here to eat and we don’t skimp on the quality that we serve. My mom makes the chili and people love the chili. We have roasted chicken that we’re famous for that’s my grandpa’s original recipe.”

They have made one change that Tony might not have liked. In 2011, the tavern began serving liquor.

“My dad was against hard alcohol,” Tonia said. “When Nicole came in and said we need to do it I thought, no, never. Nicole said, well, mom, if we don’t get with it, we’re going to miss out. She was really the one that convinced me that we had to do that.”

Though some years are better, Tonia said the little tavern has never had truly difficult years.

“Tony’s is a landmark and people come from all over,” she said. “It’s just amazing. People from all over have been here at least once in their lifetime.”