#41 OREGON - Hitting the Sweet Spot

Wine tasting is hard work and the Healthy One and I were part of a group of nine people who had been working hard. We had all been based in a house in McMinnville, OR for the better part of a week, celebrating our friends' 30th anniversary, while making daily forays into the wine country of the Willamette Valley to sample the Bacchanalian liquids. Hard work deserves a hearty breakfast and everyone was game for joining the breakfast tour, albeit for just one state.  

I found a place just down the highway from McMinnville that looked liked it might be able to handle a party of nine people. 

Block House Cafe
Dayton, Oregon

I guess I was expecting a house that was in the shape of, well, a block. Obviously this cafe was a former church. I did spot a military block house directly across the street in Court House Square Park and assumed it was responsible for the cafe's name.

The block house, a replica of one that was built in 1856, was not in the shape of a block either. The top level was set above the bottom level such that it permitted overlapping planes of rifle fire. Defenders could cover every angle of approach from the bad guys. 

It seems ironic that a cafe with a military fortification label exists in a former place of peaceful worship. It turns out that the Block House Cafe was originally located elsewhere on the square and was in fact named after that iconic structure. When the opportunity presented itself in 2014, the owners moved their cafe into the restored church without changing it's name. 

AMBIENCE:  The Block House Cafe is located in a former First Baptist Church built in 1886. In 2007 Bill Stoller, founder of a billion dollar temporary staffing company and the producer of a pretty good Pinot Noir at his nearby vineyard, purchased the unoccupied and deteriorated property and had it restored in 2012. Stoller is a Dayton native and his aim was to help revitalize his hometown.

This is the second place in a row we have visited on the breakfast tour (the first being in Fayetteville, West Virginia) where a church had been converted into a breakfast place. Is this a trend? Could it be that Americans are turning away from God and toward bacon and eggs?

Upon entering the cafe one cannot help but be struck by the gorgeous, simple, and open floor plan.

The high ceilings are made of fir and the floor boards are hickory. The original church structure lives on through the retention of the arched windows and the exposed brick. The fir table tops were made from the church's original floor joists. A beautiful walnut cabinet graces the wall in back of the bar. There is even a pew in the back if you needed to sit and pray for lower cholesterol counts.

There was no problem getting our group of nine seated at a nicely appointed table. One of the more interesting touches of decor were the mason jar water glasses that came with handles.

 5 out of 5 stars 

FOOD:  Pictured below is the breakfast menu we were each handed. I realize that the writing is way to small to make out, so I'll let the reader know that the entire right hand column is a list alcoholic beverages: four craft beers, four red wines, two white wines, and twelve cocktails. This presented itself as irony number two, knowing that Baptists have long believed that drinking alcohol is morally lax and against God's will.

Apparently, not afraid of the ghosts of Baptist teetotalers, the breakfast beverage philosophy of the cafe's owners seems to be summed up below. After all this is wine country.

Our group just stuck with water and coffee for our liquid intake. After all, it was eight o'clock in the morning and we had sinned mightily the night before.

I ordered the Cinnamon Roll Pancakes and had them add strawberries and whipped cream.

I also ordered a side of sausage.

I tackled the pancake first. My sweet Lord. It was delicious. I couldn't put my fork down until it was completely gone. Then it hit me. My head started buzzing and my hands started shaking. No, I hadn't indulged in Oregon's newly legalized flora. I was on a sugar high. I hadn't had this much sugar coursing through my body since Halloween night when I was eight years old. It was a bit much for me. Luckily, eating the ample amount of sausage brought me down somewhat. The pancakes did taste wonderful but I don't think I would order them again due to the aftershock.

The Healthy One ordered the Avocado Toast which was built with two scrambled eggs, avocado, greens, tomato, and cotija cheese and came with a side of fruit. She deemed it excellent.







  





  










Two other Avocado Toasts were ordered. Guess the genders of those diners.

Also ordered were a breakfast sandwich with egg, bacon, and cheese with a side of hash browns and bacon and eggs with hash browns and a biscuit and a single cinnamon pancake. Guess the genders of those two diners.

Not to be out done, one individual ordered the same two cinnamon pancakes I had ordered but instead of strawberries and whipped cream got bacon and eggs! Guess the gender of that person.

I had recently read that, on average, women live five percent longer than men. Visit any assisted living facility and this becomes abundantly clear. I may be stereotyping somewhat but I believe that the menu choices of people in our group provided one clue  as to why this life span difference exists.

Those who ordered bacon were offered an interesting option by our server. They could either have their bacon "limp" or "crisp". In all the breakfast places we have visited I had never been asked how I wanted my bacon cooked. It was always up to the cook to decide  and you got what he or she thought was best. Personally, I like my bacon on the greasy, fatty side which I suppose equates to "limp".  However, it seemed that to order anything "limp" would be unmanly and I was glad I had ordered sausage to escape the dilemma.

Everyone thought the food was great. I heard no complaints. Little was left of the copious amounts we had ordered. We were well fueled for another hard day of work.

5 out of 5 stars

    

COFFEE:                

A hutch in the corner of the room was set up with coffee mugs and a couple of thermoses of coffee so that you could help yourself before perusing the menu.

The coffee had been roasted at Caravan Coffee in Newberg, Oregon and was pretty good. I only wished that it had been a little stronger to better cut the sweetness of my saccharine indulgence.

I should note that one of our group found the piece de resistance of  all coffee mugs in the hutch. (Hint: it's not the one with the rose.)

4 out of 5 stars

SERVICE:  Our server, Ashley, was excellent. She was pleasant, proficient, and professional. She had no problem handling our large group. The food came out relatively quickly and there were no mix ups in who got what. She also let loose with a few subtle but witty lines which is always appreciated early in the morning.

 5 out of 5 stars

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A FEW WORDS ABOUT DAYTON:

Dayton is a work in progress. Located in the Yamhill Valley, which is a smaller valley within the greater Williamette Valley, the rural community has a population of of about 2,500. Only 25 miles from Portland, most of the working population are involved in agriculture such as vegetables, berries, nuts, and wheat. Wine also impacts the community. Five miles away are 47 wineries and vineyards.

Dayton was founded in 1850 by a couple of pioneering gentlemen, one who happened to be from Dayton, Ohio. It can be very confusing googling information about Dayton, OR because you often turn up articles about the Oregon Historic District in Dayton, Ohio. I did learn that Ohioans pronounce the -gon in their Oregon as rhyming with "John" while those in Dayton, Oregon (and the rest of the state) pronounce the -gon as rhyming with "gun".

A quick walk through town revealed a certain shabbiness and infrastructure ennui. Dayton seems to be the runt of the litter of towns in an area that include tourist destinations such as Dundee, Newberg, and McMinville, but it has the potential to up its game.

The town has 41 places on the National Register of Historic Places. If preservation leads to restoration which leads to revitalization then Dayton is well poised to attract development money. The town is already the home to the historic Joel Palmer House, a foodie destination where nearly every dish incorporates local wild mushrooms and truffles. The restoration of the church that now houses The Block House Cafe seems like a huge momentum builder.


BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

We did quite a bit of walking around McMinnville, including around the pretty campus of Linfield College. We also hiked outside McMinnville in the Miller Woods Conservation Area and farther afield in waterfalls-rich Silver Falls State Park outside Salem.

June 6, 2018

NEXT UP: California here we come.