Palmer’s Cafe

Published 4:00 am Friday, January 20, 2006

Location: 645 NE Greenwood Ave., Bend

Hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily

Price Range: $1.25 to $8.25 for breakfast menu; $5.25 to $9.50 for lunch menu

Alcoholic Beverages: None

Kids’ Menu: Yes

Reservations: No

Credit Cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover

Contact: 317-5705

There’s nothing pretentious about Palmer’s Cafe.

The hole-in-the-wall restaurant on Greenwood Avenue features traditional diner fare. Breakfast means biscuits and gravy or omelets. Burgers and grilled sandwiches are the highlights at lunch.

”We’re getting back to the basics here,” co-owner Michael Kau said.

Cooks arrive every morning before dawn to bake cinnamon rolls and biscuits the size of grapefruits. They make gravy fresh each morning.

The cafe, with its 11 indoor and four outdoor tables, has a simple interior. Grill smells waft through the room. The owners pride themselves on beefy portions and lean prices.

Cheap eats are to be had on the breakfast or lunch menus.

Co-owner Harry Johnson said that Palmer’s offers great service and quality.

”For the price and the service, you can’t find a better place,” said Kau’s wife, Karen Kau.

”Our theory has always been whatever they want, if it’s in the kitchen, then we’ll go out of our way to accommodate them,” Karen Kau said.

Karen Kau said that Palmer’s stopped serving dinner about a month ago. The restaurant had offered the extended hours for almost a year, but Kau said that she had to cut back. ”We are doing great with breakfast and lunch,” she said, and have the opportunity to offer ”wonderful specials” during the week.

The Kaus say their restaurant is not expanding at the expense of quality. The focus will still be on doing things the old-fashioned way, whether that means breaking each egg that goes into an omelet or grating the potatoes to make the hash browns.

”We are a local favorite,” Karen Kau said. ”We don’t cater to tourists. It just kind of happened that way.”

”We really enjoy our cafe,” Kau said.

”We pour our hearts into it.”

– Heidi Hagemeier