Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 6, June 2003
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Breakfast Club anything but exclusive
By MATTHEW PREUSCH
Ask Karen McCann and Mike McCauley, owners of The Breakfast Club restaurant, if their 17 years in business on Lake City Way qualifies as a success and they are characteristically humble.
"We're kind of still in the trial phase here for a while," says McCauley. McCann just shrugs.
That sort of self-deprecating humor has endeared countless customers to the couple. Since 1986, they have helped start the day for truckers, neighboring shopkeepers and local residents by serving an array of breakfast staples that includes pancakes, omelettes and Eggs Benedict. The Breakfast Club also offers a small lunch menu.
The restaurant takes its name both from the 1980s movie and "Don McNeill's Breakfast Club," a national radio variety show that ran between 1933-1968. The show was a part of many people's morning routine, said McCauley, and that's what he hopes to accomplish with his eatery.
That wasn't always his vision. McCauley's original partner, a trained chef, had built an extensive dinner menu for their new business. But that plan faded quickly, with it went McCauley's partner. That is when he met McCann who had just moved to Seattle from California.
The two have been together since, and are equal partners in the business. They live near the restaurant, and have just two employees to help them. McCann says "we are lucky to have such a great staff."
When they do take vacations they head to their 10-acre property along the Skykomish River with McCauley's son, Matthew, 22, and McCann's daughter, Barbara, 21.
Given its success, it's interesting that The Breakfast Club is the first foray into the hospitality industry by either of its owners, though McCann said she was a "professional housewife" in her former life.
She obviously much prefers her current calling of small business owner. "I found out that I loved it once I got into it," she said.
McCauley spent his childhood in Edmonds, graduating from Woodway High School in 1975. After that he tried a number of jobs: long-haul trucker, ambulance driver, and auto-parts salesman. Only as a restaurateur has he found happiness.
"People come in here happy. The neighborhood is full of good people," he said.
Aside from about 10 small tables, The Breakfast Club houses innumerable knickknacks, photographs and treasures, including an antique typewriter, collectible glasses and obscure history books.
One drink cooler is almost completely covered with pictures of McCann's infant granddaughter, Michael.
The two said they have tried to cut down on all the clutter, hauling boxes of trinkets off to Goodwill. But every trip to a garage sale or a second-hand store yields ample finds to refill the vacated spaces on The Breakfast Club's shelves.
"It's gotten way out of control. We've started carting stuff off, giving it away," said McCauley. "They just keep coming back. It's like when you throw clothes out of your closet and they keep coming back."
Luckily for The Breakfast Club's proprietors, trinkets aren't the only regulars. Many locals have been taking their morning sustenance at its worn formica tables for years.
Delmar Olson, 70, who works at Stan Baker's Gun Shop on Lake City Way, is one such customer. He estimates he has been a Breakfast Club member seven days a week for the past 15 years.
In that time, he's gone from ordering a short stack every morning to opting for the simpler fare of toast and coffee.
"Diabetes," he explained, though he still allows himself pancakes and sausage on Saturdays.
He says McCauley and McCann's friendly dispositions are the primary reason he's never considered having breakfast anywhere else.
"They always treated me good," he said. "I've gone in there all these years and probably will continue to as long as I can."
McCann said having regular customers like Olson make the restaurant business so rewarding, even if those relationships are centered on food.
"I don't know them by name," she said. "I know them by what they order."
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The Breakfast Club is located at 12306 Lake City Way NE. For information, call 361-2582.