Good Food Close By

The Club Sports Bar & Grill is our go-to dinner joint after a long day of working on the cottages. The best frie,s possibly on the planet. Burgers that dreams are made of (try the Bulldog). Gridiron steak is tender and inexpensive. The Irish nachos made with their home fries are brilliant (get a half order, trust me). Club sandwich is scary big. Lone pool table is often idle, go figure. Six blocks north on 2nd, right (east) on Pine. Open Tues-Sat 11am-8pm (I'm not kiddling, this not your typical bar), closed Sun-Mon. 

Smallwoods is the only nearby place for breakfast and espresso on Sunday (and then only in spring, summer, and fall). The shaded back deck overlooks their farm. The heftiest, most delicious meat sandwiches ever -- straight from their own smoker. Store sells organic fruits and veggies, regional wines and coffee, artisanal foods and crafts, and their own baked goods. Two miles south on 2nd, right before the turnoff to Malott. Open May-Oct 2024 dates TBD.

The Breadline Cafe offers fantastic food in an amazing old soda pop factory. Vintage decor gone crazy, puts me to shame, owner Paula is the Queen of Collectibles, all hail! Thanks to the in-house bakery, they offer a bread bar instead of a salad bar. BTW, a great place to get great salads (pretty much the only place over here). In OMAK on Ash (street west of the main drag), 11 minutes away. Well worth the drive, and you can go bowling after, if you aren't waddling. Current hours Tues-Fri 11am-8pm, sadly closed Sat-Mon. 

The hard-to-spot Stockyard Cafe breakfast/lunch place (on the road from town center up to the highway) is where the real ranchers come to stoke up on calories. My 2nd fave breakfast place (would be first if they had espresso) -- TONS of bacon. Ham steak comes on its own plate, which you can't see hardly. Big burger is tall enough to require a steak knife stabbed into it instead of a frilly toothpick. However, new ownership and the service might be iffy according to some reviews, altho it's been fine with me, but I don't go all that often or I would need a forklift to get out of bed. Open Tues-Sat 11am-2pm (note early closing), closed Sun-Mon.

If you're wondering about the name 509, that's the telephone area code around here, altho why they chose that is a mystery. This is a nice little lunchtime sandwich shop across from the post office (by the flashing red light on Oak), and the only place to get a salad that isn't iceberg lettuce. Open Mon-Fri 10:30am-2pm. Not open on weekends (hopefully someday). No espresso (hopefully someday). 

Less than two blocks from the cottages, the Farmstand is a little hole in the wall (literally, it's set back between two buildings, look for the signs and sandwich board) that sells fresh organic fruits and veg, artisan cheese, local whole and raw milk, salad greens and prepared salads and meals, wholesome baked goods and desserts, everything you need to counteract the more common food groups out in the country (fat, sugar, salt). Only open Wed-Thurs 10am-6pm, closed in winter -- 2024 spring open and fall close dates TBD)

Right on the main drag in old Omak (just a few minutes from the cottages), Rancho Chico is your classic Mexican restaurant, with enormous portions on those big oval plates, very enjoyable with Mexican beer or margueritas. Alert -- the salsa that comes with the free appetizer tortilla chips is fiery, but you can damp that down with the little dish of coleslaw they serve along with it. Decor is a hoot, colorful carved wooden chairs, lots of sombreros and some incredibly fabulous decorated saddles, I'd get on a horse if I could sit on one of those (no other way). And open every day 11am-10pm (9pm Sun-Mon)! (There aren't many eateries open around here on a Sunday or Monday.) 

Love to sit outside and sip one of the  many, many craft beers or ciders and wolf down the brisket or bbq offerings at the Dawg House just up the street at 2nd and Queen. And very often there's live music in the warmer months, such as Karen and Gil, who play folk rock, much of it in French -- thanks to their last four decades living in France and him being born there (she's local stock). You can also buy fixings to make your own beer at the retail outlet next door. If you're staying at Kokanee Cottages, you can actually crawl home from this pub if need be. Like if you try all 30-something brewskies. (Don't try it if you yourself are 30-something or older. Trust me.) Open Wed-Sat 4-8pm (winter hours, open later in summer, stay tuned). 

Eateries open on Sunday (and Monday) in the Okanogan/Omak area are thin on the ground, post-Covid. Smallwoods is open during the warmer weather months on Sunday, but in the dead of winter (in addition to the rest of the year), your weekend wrap-up go-to diner is Magoos on the main street in Omak. Decor is Disney-esque, and there is a toy train that runs around the room up high, how fun is that? Only open for breakfast and lunch, and no espresso, sigh, but for bacon, eggs, and home fries, happy days. Unless I am red-eyed ravenous, I get their Breakfast Special, which includes enough but not too much of everything you want in an egg-oriented breakfast. Not on the menu is Eggs Benedict which they sometimes offer on Saturdays. Open every day 7am-3pm.

 CONCONULLY is only 18 miles from the cottage, a pretty drive up to this fishing mecca. Always loads of deer wandering around town, and last time (Oct 2019) I saw a dozen wild turkeys by the creek. Stopped at the Red Rock for breakfast and was thrilled with 4 pieces of thick cut bacon, nice over easies, and fantastic hash browns (thin and crispy like a shoestring pancake. Haven't been there later in the day, will have to go back. 

 Good food and in the summer you can dine outdoors in the shade of a ginormous catalpa tree. (I always nip across the street to Aussie Antiques while waiting for our order.) Special on Friday is prime rib. Espresso. Ice cream. Pies. Yay. South end of TONASKET, a half hour away.  

 Nice little brew pub right on the main drag in REPUBLIC. The beer is excellent, their sodas really awesome. They make them on the fly (harken back to old-fashioned soda fountains), carbonating their custom flavors. It's a 21+ place, so if the kids are thirsty they'll have to wait outside while you get their drinks.

Not sure how common this is in other parts of the country, but it's worth going thru a bikini barista drive-thru just to check it off your bucket list. I love to see those gorgeous bodies (wish I'd had one) and clever little minimalist outfits on the staff at XO Espresso, and they make an excellent Dirty Chai (a chail latte with espresso shots, tastes kinda like a spicy mocha). BTW the baristas are moms, wives, college students, artists, working their butts off (for all to see). High five, gals! Coffee prices are high but you get a nice ogle for the surcharge. XO is on the main drag (south side) through MONROE on your way to Stevens Pass, just east of the connection to Hwy 9. 

At Wenatchee, US 97 splits and runs up both the east and west sides of the Columbia River, coming together again just east of CHELAN. If you take the eastern route, you can go to Lone Pine Fruit Stand & Cafe, 4 miles south of Beebe Bridge, which crosses the Columbia to hook up with the other 97. Lots of fruit, of course, and artisanal foods and handicrafts, espresso, and amazing pies and quiches. Flaky crusts, even on the bottom. Mountainous apple pies. And their tart cherry pie, so SO good I fairly weep at the thought of it, and hate to share. Open Mon-Sat 7am-5pm. Closed Sundays.

About a mile west of INDEX on US 2 (on your way to or from Stevens Pass) is the little Espresso Chalet that is all about the mythic Sasquatch. If you want a major sugar rush, you can get a big cookie in the shape of a saquatch footprint, with almond toenails. Or M&Ms, I can't recall. I just remember it was chocolate and really big and I was on a diet so I watched my husband eat it. Open every day 7am-7:30pm.

Okay, I can't say this is good food because it's pure sugar and therefore really bad for you. Especially if you lose control when you walk into this place. Aisles of sugar, different colors, different shapes. I finally stopped in after driving past the shop for decades, and was awed and horrified. Not so the many customers, who were walking out with their bodyweight in fudge (and that was a lot of weight, probably not their first visit). But it's here, and now you know about the place, and can work it out with your pancreas. It's an institution, you have to see it, even if you don't swallow. A few miles west of LEAVENWORTH.

If you want to see two blocks of classic Craftsman bungalows and a darling tiny town center and nifty collection of log cabins and museum, stop in CASHMERE, and pop into the Aplets and Cotlets factory while you're there. Even if you're familiar with this classic Northwest candy, it's fun to take the short tour of their kitchen and packing facility (neither of which seems big enough to process a million pounds of sugar a year!) and of course their gift shop, which is Turkish delight heaven. (I just look.) Between Leavenworth and Wenatchee, you can get to it via either Stevens Pass (Hwy 2) or Snoqualmie/Blewett Passes (I-90/US 97).