LaCrosse’s Grillbilly Cafe opens to big response

After months of remodeling and delays, the Grillbilly Cafe, LaCrosse’s new restaurant, opened May 29.

Customers filled the counter seats and several tables on the newly-remodeled cafe’s first day. Proprietor Dionne Evans said customers were coming in at a steady pace, keeping the kitchen crew busy.

“It was crazy,” Evans said about the first day. “We never anticipated we’d be that busy.”

“We never announced it, we turned the sign on at 11, and by noon, we were packed,” she said.

“It went like gangbusters,” Evans said. “We are so grateful to this community. They’ve been so supportive.”

She said eight to 10 people were helping in the kitchen. She also said she worked 16 to 18 hours per day the first week the cafe was open.

In January, LaCrosse Community Pride board members chose Evans, who lives in Hay, to operate the restaurant that’s next door to the bank.

The former Teapot Cafe has been under major renovation for several months.

Evans, along with her mother, Jeannine Henley-Larkin, refurbished the cafe, sometimes working from dawn to dusk every day.

Evans also said the project is a community effort, with many volunteers, including high school students, pitching in to help.

They completely gutted the kitchen and removed old flooring down to the original wood.

The last project that delayed the opening was replacing all the plumbing in the 100-year-old building, Evans said.

Tea Pot Cafe owners Cheri and Steven Garrett closed the restaurant in November 2012 because of health problems. They operated the cafe for more than 10 years. A cafe has been a fixture on Main Street for more than 40 years.

The Grillbilly has a large wood pellet barbecue out the back door of the restaurant, Evans said.

All the barn wood, used throughout the dining area, was donated, Larkin said.

Lois Startin, LaCrosse Community Pride board member, said having the cafe open is “fantastic.”

“We’re very excited about bringing people to town,” she said.

The cafe’s menu features hamburgers, among them “The Coug,” a double-patty burger topped with WSU’s Cougar Gold cheese; “Flaming Tiger” with jalapeno peppers and pepper jack cheese; “Cow and Pig Burger,” “The Shotgun,” and “The Squealer.”

Evans said the cafe sold out of “The Squealer,” a burger made up of half beef and half ground-up bacon. The top-selling burger was “The Coug.”

Tucannon Meats in Dayton supplies the meat for the cafe. The business raises and processes all natural meat.

Several salads also are offered on the menu, along with basic sandwiches. Grillbilly adds their special touches with homemade potato chips, loaded potato salad and Italian veggie pasta salad.

The cafe also features homemade pies made daily by Julie Roberts who gained notoriety for her pies at the Dusty Cafe.

The cafe also is open for breakfast on Saturday mornings and offers four to five specials including Evans’ homemade biscuits and gravy, pancakes and regular breakfast items such as eggs, meat and hashbrowns.

The cafe, complete with a counter, seats between 60 to 65 people, Evans said.

LaCrosse Community Pride purchased the cafe’s building when it bought the former LaCrosse State Bank building from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The FDIC took over the building after it shut down the Bank of Whitman, a branch of which occupied the bank portion of the building.

Neither the FDIC nor the banks that previously occupied the building charged rent to the Teapot.

Community Pride purchased the building out of FDIC receivership and leased it to Sterling Bank, which opened its LaCrosse branch in July 2012.

Grillbilly will be open Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the second and fourth Sundays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. It will be closed Monday and Tuesday.

“We had a very successful week,” Evans said. “We also appreciate our patient customers.”