Building will be sweet treat to Kenai

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Sandra Vozar is bringing something sweet to Old Town Kenai.

Her new two-story, 2,000-square-foot building at 910 Upland in Old Town will house living quarters for herself downstairs, bed-and-breakfast accommodations with three bedrooms and showers upstairs, and space in the front of the building downstairs to house the Old Town Café.

The café will have open seating for 20 to 25 and will serve hamburgers, fish and chips with halibut and hand-cut fries, hand-dipped ice cream and homemade candy and wedding cakes. Vozar’s niece, Carol Tolly, and Carol’s daughter, Brenna, will work in the café.
Vozar is no stranger to Old Town.

“My husband and I lived here since ’74. We’ve been here at the same corner,” she said.
She and her late husband, Paul, used to own the Toyon Villa apartment building down the street, built the Beluga RV Park on the bluff behind the apartments, and most recently owned the Old Town Village Restaurant in what is now the Tyotkas Elder Care Center.

Vozar said she comes from a family of Old World candy makers and plans to make her own fudge, turtles, toffee, caramel apples and homemade caramel candy.

“When I made candy in the past and set it out on the counter people would buy it up in no time flat,” she said.

For specialized décor she’s had the Alaska flag set in concrete in the front of the building with silver dollars representing the flag’s stars.

She also purchased two carvings from Sawfest at Land of the Living Trees in Sterling the weekend of July 18 to put out front. One carving has a bear with a lantern climbing on another bear, and the second is a totem design with a moose, a bear climbing a tree and an eagle perched on top with a salmon in its beak.

Vozar plans to move into the building before winter. She hopes to open the café in May and plans to keep it open year-round if she gets enough business.