I’ve blogged about the Descanso Junction Cafe before. It’s a little family restaurant just off of I-8 in Descanso. For those of you not familiar with rural San Diego County, Descanso is a little town at the base of the Cuyamaca Mountains, about 3,500' high. There are a lot of retired folks living there (especially, for some reason, retired police officers), along with long-distance commuters (it’s about 40 miles from there into the concentration of jobs in San Diego) and a few people who actually make their living right there.
The Descanso Junction Cafe has been open under new owners for a few years, and it has become one of the places we frequent. Partly it’s for the good homestyle food (at very fair prices), and partly it’s for the homey, familiar atmosphere. It’s certainly not fancy — some of the seats are in need of repair, the china is a little tired, and the flatware is very … flat. The waitresses have big, honest smiles and are pleasantly sassy — but they’re not going to coddle you. Setting your table generally means dumping the silverware and paper napkins in a pile for you to sort out on your own. And it’s most definitely a community sort of place — almost everyone eating there is a local, and you see all sorts of community-oriented signs, fund-raising cans, and the like there. It’s obvious that the owners think of themselves as part of the community.
We love it.
But a couple of weeks ago the owners announced that starting today there would be no more dinner served at the Descanso Junction Cafe. There just weren’t enough customers coming in for it to pay — so from now on, it’s 6 am to 2 pm, breakfast and lunch only. Last night, Debbie, Jim (our neighbor and friend), and myself made the trip up there for our last supper at the old cafe. And it was a good one, of course. I had the special: a seafood platter with grilled halibut, scampi, and fish-and-chips style cod. Delicious!
Of course we’ll still be coming up for lunch. And while we haven’t often been there for breakfast, I forsee more of this in our future.
Somehow we’ve got to make it worthwhile for them to open for dinner again!
