Twede’s Cafe documentary to play at North Bend Theatre | Guest column

Published 3:00 pm Wednesday, July 29, 2026

On Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. at the North Bend Theatre, another one of my lifelong dreams will be fulfilled in the town where dreams made a national name for themselves when “Twin Peaks” debuted on ABC in 1990. I was sitting back in Massillon, Ohio, when the series aired on television. The idea that I would ever travel all the way to Washington state wasn’t even a glimmer in my college eyes. I wouldn’t have ever believed that some day, I would come to North Bend. That someday I would work in North Bend. And I certainly never thought that a documentary that I directed would have its world premiere in the town that introduced me to the very concept of dreams.

Over this year’s Real Twin Peaks event, Rachel Bennett and Max Spears, owners of Twede’s Cafe, finally gave in to my obsessive begging and allowed me to freelance as a busboy for six days. Because I had been making my own films since I was 17 years old, I decided to film the experience, and that became “The Double R Dream.” Tickets for the documentary are on sale now and can be purchased at the North Bend Theatre’s website. The evening will begin with a screening of two other short documentaries about the history of Twede’s Cafe and end with a Q&A panel with Bennett, Spears and me, moderated by Steven Miller.

“The Double R Dream” begins with footage of my first trip to the area back in 2015. This was before I was a published author, before I ran the Twin Peaks-inspired magazine “The Blue Rose,” before I had met any of the stars, made any friends in town. Heck, it was before everything, as far as I am concerned. Coming to North Bend for the first time was truly a life-changing experience. At the time, I was wasting my days and my talent, answering phone calls from angry internet customers for a huge corporation. My heart was not in what I was doing. I decided to book a trip out to the town where my favorite TV series was filmed. I walked into Twede’s Cafe and interviewed Anita Young, who was managing the cafe at the time. I popped into the Salish [Lodge] and ran into Catherine Coulson, who played The Log Lady on “Twin Peaks.” I spoke with Ms. Coulson for about 15 minutes. We took a picture together. We talked about our children. We talked about legacy. We had a beautiful moment.

Six weeks later, she was dead. She was fighting cancer and had kept that information from everyone while she was in town that weekend. I heard the news of her passing while I was working in my cubicle. The phones continued to ring around me. I didn’t answer any of them. I was all out of answers. It was time to start questioning things. Starting with, what was I doing with my life?

A few months later, I was out of the job and started “The Blue Rose” magazine. I published my first book that year. I have since written over 10 books and have published over 50 more titles through my company, Tucker DS Press, which I run with David Bushman. Where did I meet him? I met him in North Bend in 2015 on that first trip here.

Most of the dreams that have come true for me have come true in this town. Some of them happened quietly with no one there to capture them. Some of them have been captured on film, and will be publicly shown at the North Bend Theatre on Aug. 13. I sure hope you’ll come out and see how, in your town, if you wait long enough and never give up, your dreams can come true.

– Scott Ryan, author of “Always Music in the Air: The Sounds of Twin Peaks,” director of “The Double R Dream,” busboy at Twede’s Cafe