Kettell's Corner, at South Mead Street and Fourth Avenue South, is in one of Georgetown's gritty industrial areas not very far south of the rail yards. It is a classic diner with a convenience store attached. At first look it reminds a person of those chain diners, but it's not.
A good chunk of my boyhood was spent in Southern Missouri along Route 66, and I have some experience with roadside diners and truck stops. Kettell's may be right in the city, it may not have fuel pumps or 18-wheelers parked outside, but it sure feels like a truck stop.
Well that's fine with me. I have a longstanding affection for truck stops (though I can tell you from experience that ... well, that's a different story). You can buy all the gourmet cookbooks you want and go to as many chi-chi restaurants you can find, it is America's roadside restaurants that are the refuge of authentic American cuisine.
The décor is heavily '70s, with turquoise ceiling and trim, two-tone maroon booths and upholstered chairs and wood-grain Formica table tops. Glass sugar, salt and pepper containers shared the tables with bottles of Heinz catsup. Some tables had bottles of Tabasco sauce. Kettell's may not be as spiffed-up as some of the chain diners, but it radiates the feel of roadside diners that chain restaurants cannot deliver. I looked for the blond, bouffant hairdos on the waitresses that I remembered from my youth, but they must have given way with the introduction of the '70s décor. The experienced wait staff was not chewing gum, either. Kettell's is a restaurant, not a time machine.
Nonetheless, the large menu, with most entrees in the $6 to $8 range, is all stuff you will recognize without extra explanations and all food you have had before if you grew up in the United States before 1980. We are talking burgers, steak, fish and chips, chicken, chicken fried steak, all that stuff that went out of fashion years ago, but still hits the spot when you are hungry.
My 10-year-old daughter KC is not familiar with these kinds of food and I took the time to explain a few things to her, like what a hot sandwich is. It is not a ham and cheese popped into the microwave. It is slices of meat (Kettell's offers turkey, beef or meatloaf) laid atop white bread half covered with a pile of mashed potatoes and the whole thing smothered in gravy. You can't pick it up. You eat it with a knife and fork. I loved them when I was my daughter's age, and my explanation sounded so good, I ordered a hot beef sandwich ($7.49). I hadn't had one in years.
I had no idea I had so neglected KC's education, but she said she had never before been in a restaurant that served breakfast all day. Kettell's does. It was well after 1 p.m., but she loved the idea of breakfast for lunch and looked over the separate breakfast menu with delight. That menu had a special category called "Belt Buster Specials." Three eggs is just a start on the "belt busters."
Kettell's began in 1942 as a grocery. The restaurant was added in the early 1950s and it is still family owned. Gary Kettell, who runs the restaurant, is the third generation of his family to operate the place. His 18-year-old daughter waits tables and his 27-year-old son is the night bartender.
"We specialize in soup to nuts," Gary said. "It's steaks to hamburgers to breakfast." There are daily breakfast specials until 11 a.m. and six to 10 lunch specials each day. Gary said during the week most of his customers are industrial workers and the lunch specials account for about 40 percent of his business. During the weekend people come in from Beacon Hill, Burien and West Seattle, many of them drawn by the old-fashioned, real ice cream milk shakes served with the metal mixer tumbler.
KC opted for the "eye opener" with three eggs ("over easy, please"), two pieces of toast, four pieces of bacon and four pork sausage links ($6.99). It comes with coffee, too, but Dad took that and she ordered a Sprite. Kettell's also has a full-service bar and cocktail lounge.
My hot (sometimes called "open face") sandwich was exactly as I expected it to be, only larger. All the portions at Kettell's are large. KC inspected it closely.
"That looks pretty good," she said.
"Oaugif, ih goob," I replied. Her line should have been, "You said a mouthful!" but what she really said was, "Huh?"
She laid into her breakfast with determination, and assured me it was good. She offered me a strip of bacon, and that was wonderfully meaty and delicious, and I said so.
"Yeah," she said. "This is some of the best bacon I've ever had. I think it is the best I've ever had."
We got out the door for $18.56, not including tip. We had eaten far larger lunches than we expected (or probably should have) and left completely satisfied for less than $10 each. We thought it was good value.
Kettell's Corner is at 5800 Fourth Ave. S. Food is served 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. The cocktail lounge is open until 11 p.m. Sundays through Wednesdays and until 2 a.m. Thursdays through Saturdays.
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