My Favorite Recipes 9/29/11

Meet Pete and Candis Koerner, Top Notch

After graduating from high school, Pete Koerner started working as a dishwasher at a restaurant. From there he has gone up the food industry food chain to become owner of the Top Notch Cafe in Colfax.

“I’ve been in food all my life,” he said. “It’s a passion; plus it’s fun.”

Pete and his wife Candis took over as the new owners Feb. 1.

Pete grew up in Bremerton and graduated from Bremerton High School.

Over the years he worked at various restaurants and food venues including Showbiz Pizza, which became Chuckie Cheese, and Black Angus. Being the manager of a Black Angus restaurant gave him a lot of background experience for managing a cafe.

Prior to coming to Colfax, Pete and his family were living in Houston where he was working in the deli and bakery at Costco.

“I feel that cooking is an art and baking is a science,” Pete said, noting in cooking you can experiment, throw things together and they can turn out good, but if you don’t follow set procedures when baking it doesn’t turn out right.

Pete already had a connection to Colfax through his family. His brother Vince had moved to Colfax for the ROTC program in Pullman. His father followed and lived in the area until he passed away. Pete’s nephew, Adam Koerner, previously owned the Top Notch. One day on Facebook, Pete saw that Adam was putting the cafe up for sale. Like most people in the food industry, he had always wanted to run his own place and now the opportunity had presented itself.

“It’s been a slow transition,” Candis said.

One stipulation for moving to Colfax was for Candis to get a job in the area first. She found one at the hospital and they made the move. A native of Canada working at the hospital was her first job in the States.

Once they moved to Colfax, Pete started cooking for Adam and gradually the business switched hands. In July Candis quit her job at the hospital to do the books and help out at the cafe.

“I knew he could do it,” she said of Pete taking over the restaurant.

“It’s hard work, but it’s fun,” Pete said.

One of the first things they did was have the booths refurbished, giving them all new coverings and fixing the sinking holes in the seats.

The seat repair was a monumental event for the Top Notch regulars who over the years developed a working knowledge of which booths to avoid. Pete said one of the regular coffee guys even brought his wife in just to see the new seats. Pete also has plans for new tables and flooring.

Another change has been the extension of business hours. The cafe had been serving only breakfast and lunch but now continues into the dinner hours on certain days. They have also opened on Sunday. Pete said they were trying to find another reliable cook to help cover the extra time and now have someone on board.

“We have so much support from the locals,” Candis said. Pete commented that one thing he learned from Costco is to take care of your customers and employees and they will take care of you. So sometimes he does something extra for the people that always come in, including reserving the same table every morning for the coffee crowd.

“The regulars are the ones who keep it going,” he said.

Working in a small town, Pete has gotten to know a lot of people. He also has had the opportunity to meet a lot of new people, all of them different and interesting.

On their day off Pete and Candis usually run errands for the restaurant. Pete plans to get back into an old habit of doing a pizza and movie night at home. It is a tradition that started when he was a kid, and they have done it with Jorja in the past. They make homemade pizza and breadsticks and relax with a movie. He also looks forward to taking Jorja on movie dates to give mom some time off.

Jorja has lots of energy and is active in soccer. She took the Colfax cheer camp in the fall and wants to get into cheerleading.

Recipes:

Homemade Pizza

2 cups warm water (about 110 degrees)

4 cups flour

1 tsp. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

1 envelope active dry yeast

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 tin tomato sauce

1 tin tomato paste

2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning

1 Tbsp. garlic salt

Mozzarella cheese

Favorite toppings

To make dough, mix water, flour, sugar salt, and yeast all together with dough hook for 8 minutes.

Add oil and mix for another 1 – 2 minutes. Separate dough into 3 equal balls and let rise for about 1 hour. To make sauce add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, seasoning and salt together in a bowl.

Roll out dough, spread with sauce, add your favorite toppings and cheese.

Do Dads

1 Box each of Wheat Chex, Corn Chex and Rice Chex

2 Boxes (8 oz) Chicken in the Basket

1/2 Box (1 lb) Wheat Thins (1 bag from the Costco twin pack)

1/2 Box (1 lb) Triscuits (1bag from the Costco twin pack)

1 Box (24oz) Cheez-its

2 Boxes (10oz each) Twigs (cheese sticks)

36 oz. Pretzels

1 Large jar of mixed nuts

1 Large jar of roasted & salted peanuts

Mix together in a large bag and divide into two bags.

2 lbs. of Butter or Margarine

2 Tbsp. of Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp. garlic powder

Melt 1 lb. of Butter/margarine, 1 Tbsp of Worcestershire sauce and 1 tsp. of garlic. Add to one of the bags, slowly, mixing well. Repeat the steps for the second bag. Place in a large foil roaster. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 hour. Mix often. This will make about 4 roasters. The process is time consuming, but certainly worth the work.