Documentary highlights Polson's historic diner

Richwines Burgerville is a local legacy, and honoring the Richwine name is what keeps the family pushing through long hard days, year after year.

Local filmmaker David W. King was enjoying a cheeseburger deluxe one day with his wife and son at the well-known Polson diner, as they had many times before, when he really took notice of his surroundings. As a lover of a good, classic American tale, he looked around the restaurant at the many faces – people enjoying simple, delicious food, and a family that loves the opportunity to connect its customers – and knew there was a story to be told.

“We are pretty fanatical about their burgers and fries,” King said. “And we love the people that run it. That’s what led to us wanting to do a documentary about it.”

His documentary film “Burgers, fries and family ties,” debuts at Showboat Cinemas in Polson, beginning March 6.

Family run diners are becoming less common in this modern era and finding a gem like Richwines is pretty rare. King describes coming to Richwines as like stepping into a time machine to the past.

While filming he discovered Burgerville features some truly original operations. As different relatives have overseen operations over the years, it has always been important to the family to keep things functioning close to the methods Enoch Richwine, Burgerville’s founder, set up nearly 60 years ago.

King said the Richwines still work the same small hand-operated burger press that they have used from opening day in 1962. There is no electronic point of sales system, the staff hand writes order checks and hangs them on a spindle.

“It’s like they are caught in another dimension,” King said. “It’s a wonderful place to step into because you suddenly realize you are being provided service by people who are doing it they way they did it for your parents and grandparents.”

The film features the Richwine family and the many struggles they went through to keep the place open and running with the same original quality. The largest hardship of this family run restaurant came almost a decade ago.

Enoch Richwine had already passed, and his son Shane Richwine was running the family business. Unfortunately he became very sick with cancer and the family faced a huge hurdle. Shane Richwine couldn’t keep up with the daily procedures and the rest of the family stepped up to help.

Shane Richwine passed away during that time, and the family did not have anyone in the pipeline readily available to take over. Then current owner and operational manager Marcia Richwine Moen made a huge decision to leave her 20-year career as an H&R Block tax consultant to keep the family business from folding.

“Marcia made a very quick and solid decision to drop her career and personally go in and take over running the restaurant along with her mother, who was elderly but helped Marcia to run things,” King explained.

According to the film, Richwines Burgerville begins setting up every year on Jan. 2. Current owner and operational manager Marcia Richwine Moen starts talking to vendors and ordering the bull meat that will make hundreds of burgers. She oversees the meat grinding, which of course happens in-house just as it did when her father Enoch Richwine opened up shop. She also hires staffing for the summer and gets the restaurant odds-and-ends functioning.

“I didn’t know I would go from being a tax accountant and whatever to a butcher…” Marcia Moen laughs during a scene in the movie. “But life brings you what it brings you.”

Marcia Moen is one of the biggest reasons Richwines Burgerville is such a quality place. King discovered she works insanely long days, and is very hands-on with all of the restaurant procedures. He said it was one of the most unexpected finds of the documentary, discovering just how much really goes into a running a small business.

“She’s driven by a dedication to excellence and also wanting to uphold the family name,” King said. “In the film she says, ‘That is our name on that place.’ She takes it very seriously, the legacy and the customers … it’s mainly her dedication to making that the best place it can be.”

Richwines is a part of a community that is helping to keep Polson’s history alive. King explained that many grandparents are taking their grandchildren there to share a part of what their life was like growing up.

“Well I think that anything we have that can link us to our past in a way that’s tangible is useful,” King said. “In a way, it’s got the same value as a museum, but it’s a living museum – it’s happening right in front of you.”

He added that it is refreshing to come to a place like Burgerville. If you take away phones, social media and technology, what you are left with is real, raw relationships.

“It (the diner) is pretty unusual, and I think just culturally very valuable,” King said. “It’s a link to our past that is being erased by technology and isolation.”

That uniqueness is part of the reason King deemed Richwines Burgerville worthy of a documentary. King also thought the film would do well because the Richwine family, from its struggles to triumphs, is a classic “American Dream” type of story.

“I’m just drawn to American, apple pie, patriotic stories and this is that type of place,” King said. “They proudly fly the stars and stripes, they support charitable causes – just good wholesome people.”

As King began filming in 2018, he said Marcia Moen welcomed his film idea and their relationship grew as he dove deeper into the Burgerville history. She provided him with many clips from old home videos that really capture the depth of the family’s past and the origins of Burgerville.

Many different family members, including her daughter Cassidy Moen, nephew Jeremy Richwine and brother Corey Richwine are featured in the film as well. Cassidy Moen remembers helping out when she was just 8 years old, and she still loves spending her summers there.

“I like that I’m with my family, and that it has so much history behind it, that it’s 60 years in the making, that it’s who we are.” Cassidy Moen said in the film.

King was grateful Marcia Moen allowed him to poke around the diner for a total of 18 months, and he said she was eager to document what the Richwine family name really means.

“Some days aren’t good days, you can have a rough day or you can get behind… it was definitely a vulnerable thing to have us be there so much,” King said. “It could have blown up. I was aware that I could have a falling out here and this whole film will just go down in a ball of flames.”

It didn’t explode, and it turned into an inspiring film about a hardworking family that King hopes the whole town of Polson will enjoy as it shows for a whole week at the local Showboat Cinemas beginning March 6.

The film has won a few awards so far and will be featured in the Spokane International Film Fest just a few days before it premieres in Polson.

King and Marcia Moen both hope the film hits home with locals, and gets everyone’s mouths watering for Burgerville’s season opening poised for mid-March.

Reporter Whitney England may be reached at 758-4419 or wengland@dailyinterlake.com