Otis Cafe Friday, October 26, 2007

Patrons come and go from the tiny Otis Cafe on highway 18 in Otis, Ore.

The Otis Cafe is a tiny, little restaurant in Otis, Ore., just a couple of miles off the coast north of Lincoln City. The dining room only seats about 25 patrons, and you have to walk into the kitchen to find the restrooms.

But, as the whiteboard inside says, it's "worth the weight wait."

And we didn't have to wait that long. Even though it was busy enough that Pierce and I had to sit at the counter, we had clam chowder—thick enough to walk on—in front of us within ten minutes. The restaurant is known for its breakfasts, served all day, but it was lunchtime so we had hamburgers.

Perhaps the best thing about the cafe is the decoration. Just about every inch of the walls are covered with black and white pictures of fishermen with huge fish, old logging camps, and three-dimensional sculptures of hands holding coffee cups and doughnuts. Behind the counter, hand-made personalized mugs wait for regular customers.

The Otis Cafe was featured in this story in USA Today.