Crescent Café

"Breakfast is breakfast." Don't you believe it. Owners Michael McKenneys (right) and Chef Danny Wilser (left) know how to start your day off right. And their lunch sets you on the right path for the rest of the afternoon.

Opened for breakfast in April of 2006, the concept was to offer the best breakfast possible using locally-sourced ingredients, a changing menu and some unusual items. "A number of dinner houses do this kind of thing well," says Michael. "But it's unusual to have a breakfast spot offer the quality and unique items we do. So often, restaurants buy 50 pound bags of frozen meat and slap them on the grill. We peel each potato, squeeze each orange for juice and use eggs from cage-free chickens. We only bake with fresh eggs; they are a different quality and cook differently." Their cost on eggs is triple the norm and the maple syrup they use is the real thing, Grade A, and one of the few items that isn't sourced locally. Breakfast items range from their popular chicken hash to brandied orange French toast, caramelized banana nut pancakes, ginger-pear coffee cake, pork breakfast meatloaf, cheddar corn cakes and much more. Fresh squeezed juice could be plain orange or blood orange or orange-ginger.

Eight months went by before customer pressure and their own interest had them adding lunch. "It seemed odd to go home at noon," laughs Michael. "Even doing lunch, we're home by 2:30 p.m." They have 28 different soup recipes they rotate for lunch, one being cream of broccoli with bleu cheese. Sandwiches are made with house-baked bread. Salads include items like tomato and bread salad with feta cheese, and beet and orange salad with jicama and Briar Rose goat cheese. The lunch menu changes weekly, and always includes the egg special from breakfast for those who aren't quite ready to leap to lunch. "We have guests who come every day or three-to-four times a week. We want to keep them interested," explains Michael. Chef Danny adds, "We take breakfast and lunch more seriously than most people. It's probably due to the fact that the whole staff really likes to eat!"

Chef Danny gets to the restaurant at 2 a.m. (they are open Wednesday-Sunday) to make bread, coffee cake, biscuits and other pastry items from scratch. At 5 a.m., the rest of the kitchen staff arrives to start squeezing oranges, peeling potatoes and getting ready to greet guests at 8 a.m. "I've never known a harder-working man than Danny," says Michael. "He won't put something on a plate if it's not absolutely perfect."

When they moved to McMinnville in 2005, they purchased the 131-acre Crescent Dairy Farm built in 1934. It was not a working farm when they bought it. "It's an unusual property because it's right in McMinnville," explains Michael. "We restored the barn the first year and it's phenomenal. Then we looked around and said ‘what's missing?' Animals. We started with one bull and five pregnant cows. We now have 15 and two dozen chickens plus dogs and cats." They have Angus cattle on the farm and use the beef at the restaurant. The eggs they bake with come from their own farm. Produce is local or from their farm and butter comes from the Farmers Cooperative Creamery nearby.

After a year, the restaurant space downtown came available and they bought it. "We wanted to connect with the community," says Michael. "We also wanted to do something as business partners together downtown. We took a 15 year lease, gutted the space and created what we have now. It was formerly a sandwich shop, so we installed an entirely new kitchen. The first day we opened, it was an instant success. Danny's food is phenomenal." Danny founded, owned and cooked at Ella's in San Francisco for 16 years. An incredibly popular restaurant, it was written up in every San Francisco magazine and had a loyal following. The quality and flavor of his food is not a surprise to anyone who ever went to Ella's.

Michael started a company called Fit Tech in the 80s, selling, training and maintaining exercise equipment for large companies like Chevron, Hewlett Packard, Apple, cruise lines and hotels. He was at the right place at the right time with the right idea. He has no restaurant background, but truly enjoys the business now. "It's a labor of love and fun for both of us. We both have strong work ethics, take the Café very seriously and want to give people the very best," says Michael. "At this point, I think we know all 32,000 residents of McMinnville! I have the best job on the planet."

The last six years they spent in California, they lived in the Sonoma area. "We like the wine areas, so this move was good in that respect," says Danny. "We really love what's here that we didn't have there, like a creamery in the middle of town. And we have cows! We couldn't have had cows in the City. Despite cooking for so many years on the same corner in a foodie town like San Francisco, I can't imagine ever leaving here. The Willamette Valley is so pretty."

The irony of the story is that they moved to McMinnville to retire. Michael is in his 60s, Danny is his 50s and they had done well financially. It was time to relax. But some people just don't know how to retire. And that's good news for anyone visiting the Crescent Café.

Crescent Café 526 NE 3rd Street McMinnville, OR 97128 503-435-2655 No website Chicken hash with chives and fresh-baked biscuit

Connie Adams/November 2010