Destination Dining in West Point

By Antoinette May Herndon

Bears! Bears! Bears! The big news at West Point’s Cozy Cabin is that Lynda Smith and her fuzzy, friendly, bumbling bears are back in place.

Lynda opened the Cozy Cabin in 1998, leased it to the Clark family in 2005 and returned in April of this year. She brought her bears back with her—carvings, paintings, photos. Goldilocks would feel right at home there, but then so does everyone.

The Cozy Cabin lives up to its name. The eatery is plenty snug and looks appropriately cabin like with its low ceilings and paneled walls. A hand-painted mural of the High Sierras on one wall reminds us that West Point—originally Indian Gulch—was a camp established by frontiersman and scout, Kit Carson, while searching for a pass over the mountains. That’s it for art work—unless you count, as I do, all those bears.

In any case, food and friendliness are the café’s main attractions. The prices are slightly lower under the “new-old” ownership and the menu has been enlarged. It’s fun to share in the good time that Lynda is having there with her children and grandchildren. Rod does the cooking. Brian, Chelsey and Little Lynda help with the serving.

Lots of mornings Charles and I decide we need a little Cozy Cabin

Café in our lives. It’s a real plus that the restaurant now serves breakfast all day. Cozy Cabin’s former 11 a.m. deadline meant getting up earlier and allowing plenty of time for the drive. (Cozy Cabin lunches are good too, but breakfast remains the main event.)

That drive is really something. A lot of wilderness out there. I felt a bit like Kit Carson myself the first time I navigated the mountain road.

On a recent Sunday morning we passed a sauntering doe, two sweet fawns and a sassy squirrel. Watching us from the dense forest beyond? Lions, tigers and bears, oh my! Well, lions and bears, maybe. Surely bears.

When we arrived, the place was packed with customers chatting amiably amongst themselves and with the busy wait staff. What can I say? The Cozy Cabin feels like the town living room. That cafe really is cosy. Or is it cozy?

Charles ordered the Deuces Breakfast ($5.95) which included two eggs, two pancakes, two sausages and coffee.

I had a difficult time choosing between two long time favourites, the Mountain Benedict ($5.95) and the Lumberjack, ($6.95.) The Mountain Benedict consists of two fluffy biscuits covered in sausage grave and topped by two eggs.

The Lumberjack is comprised of country potatoes, ham, sausage and bacon topped by two eggs

and salsa. This time I chose the latter and loved it.

For me at least, getting to the Cosy Cabin is half the fun, an adventure in itself. I love the wild, winding ride through the forest, through the trees to West Point, It seems a long way and seems like a different world.

Sometimes I wonder: Why do people live way out there? But invariably I remember that Kit Carson stopped in his tracks when he reached what would become West Point. He knew a good thing when he saw it and didn’t go any farther. I guess that makes the Cozy Cabin Café a true destination restaurant and well worth the drive.

VITALS: 277 Main St., West Point. 293-7232. Breakfast served every day but Thursday from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Fish and chips, grilled chicken, burgers and a variety of sandwiches highlight the lunch menu. Credit cards accepted.

amherndon@sierralodestar.com

Pictures:

The interior of West Point’s Cozy Cabin Café is warm and inviting.

Lynda Smith, granddaughter of the owner who bears the same name, is a friendly and efficient server at West Point’s Cozy Cabin Café.

Charles Herndon enjoys breakfast at West Point’s Cozy Cabin Café.

West Point’s Cozy Cabin really is a cabin.