My best restaurant experience of this year was at the Family Pancake House on the top of Snoqualmie Pass. Definitely not the swankiest of places or serving the best food, but the condition at which I was in to be there in the first place was fantastic!
I found myself at the Family Pancake House on the top of Snoqualmie Pass after a long day of dirt bike riding at Tanem; a favorite spot of ours. We had gone with another couple who are good friends of ours and were heading home late in the afternoon when our truck started to shake. I finally convinced Mr. Donogh to pull over at the next exit to check it out only to find the bolts on one of our front tire’s hubcaps (so not up on my car terms, so this could be wrong!) was completely cut off. Being a Sunday and just outside of no where we could not find an open auto shop anywhere (thank you Blackberry). The men decided that they would double check and drive into the nearest town in the other truck after they unhitched their bikes. Us women sat on a box at a creepy exit by ourselves with the bikes and the other truck. I say creepy, because this was sometype of recreation exit with a dead end that multiple cars would pull up with their passengers walking out into the woods and returning some time later (snow was still on the ground at this point too!). Groups of people also walked up on foot to the exit and into the woods to return later. Strange.
When the men returned with empty hands they decided that we would drive on the shoulder up the Pass to a place where they could leave us and the truck to run back and get another truck to bring us home. After about 45 minutes of a scary drive up the pass we made it. The only restaurant open for us to wait for hours was the Family Pancake House. We waited there three hours for the men to return enjoying a dinner of chicken fingers and bad wine. What made this restaurant experience amazing was the feeling of being incredibly thankful for our friends… and getting away from the woods people.
I am a SOHO Wife and write this blog for women working out of a small office or home office that are looking for inspiration in developing and sustaining a healthy SOHO lifestyle.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
First off im sure it sucked that you got stranded for three hours but to trash this restraunt is completely rude..Wow if it wasnt for them you would not have a place to sit for 3 HOURS taking up the restraunts table,taking in their “Free Heat” and getting something to eat and drink!! I WOULD BE SO THANKFUL for this place and not SLAM them on the internet.Seems to me lady your probly one of those stuck up high society prissy ladys; who complain about everything, and anything if its out of your comfort zone! there are worse things in life to endure and talk about,You are what gives americans a bad name!!!!!!
Hi David!
I just reread my post, confused because I wrote about it because it was my best restaurant experience of 09. I see where you thought I was trashing it though, so I wanted to make sure I was clear about the context of this post. It was part of Gwen Bell’s Best of 09 Blog Challenge where you write every day in December about the best parts of your year. I said at the beginning that it wasn’t the swankiest of places with the best food, because the other posts people were writing were about 5 course meals and dinners in far away places and I thought the juxtaposition was funny. I said bad wine, because I am on a bad wine budget. I’m sure they serve great wine there, but I can’t afford it :) I don’t have an eating out budget, so being able to be there for three hours was literally the best restaurant experience of 2009, and you are right I was so thankful that they were open. Anything bad I said was directed towards being stranded on the side of I-90, which was a total bummer.
Hope that clears things up. Best,
Jenn