Catching ‘Cabin Fever’ Local restaurant offers patrons live music, homestyle recipes and a warm, relaxed environment.
Eating off speckled tinware in an old cabin could feel like a vacation. That feeling has been is easy to find in Cache Valley for the past nine years just by going to the Cabin Fever Café.
Everything on the menu is made from scratch, said Ronald Adair, who owns the restaurant with his wife Barbara. “We wanted to go back to doing everything the old-fashioned way.”
The Adairs started the café nine years ago in Smithfield and four years ago moved to 180 W. 1200 S. Highway 89-91 in Logan.
Almost all of the food served has made at the Adair’s home for years.
Adair said, “If you’re coming to mechanically eat because you’re hungry, go to McDonalds. Come here for a great flavor profile. Everything we do, we do a little different than everyone else.”
The menu starts with breakfast and doesn’t end until dessert. They make buttermilk and buckwheat pancakes from scratch. “They’re like nothing you’ve ever tasted before,” he said.
Other popular items on the menu include everything from burgers to Cajun food and onion rings to cream cheese brownies. “We’re known for our desserts, appetizers and dressings,” Adair said.
The dressings, including blue cheese, are made in the restaurant. They serve fresh seafood from Alaska, prime rib and several pasta dishes, including the “unusual” Italian Alps chicken and pasta, Adair said.
The Kansas City Smokehouse Barbecue sandwich is smoked pork slow cooked and sliced, Adair said, then they add their own barbecue sauce and serve it on a sour dough bun.
“The whole menu is full of the things we enjoy,” Adair said. “We enjoy feeding people who enjoy good food.”
Neal Maynes, a freshman majoring in business, said, “I thought it was pretty good. I liked the country feelin’ and the home cookin’.”
The Adairs got the idea for the restaurant when they were traveling through Star Valley, Wyo. Adair said they wanted to create a place that feels rustic. “A fun little resort oasis out in the middle of nowhere.”
Adair said they don’t just turn on the grill and fry up a bunch of food. “When you order it, we cook it fresh. We’re not the local greasy spoon. We take care in what we prepare.”
Cache Valley has a lot of independent restaurants, “which is nice and most of them do a good job,” Adair said. “Angie’s, Zanavoo and the Iron Gate Grill and others have done a great job. There are just a lot of unique independent places that are fun. Then the cookie-cutter places move in and threaten the independents.”
A unique aspect of the restaurant is the live entertainment. Several bands come to the café to entertain the crowds. The entertainment includes such bands as Sassafras every second Saturday of the month, Tumbleweeds every Monday and Friday night and Bluegrass night with the Willow Valley String Band every last Saturday of the month.
Amanda Hansen, a junior majoring in elementary education said, “The food was great. I was there on a night with live entertainment. It was pretty cool.”
Adair said people who come to the restaurant are “thrilled with the food and love the entertainment.”
Stacy Richards, a senior majoring in photography, and a waitress at the café, said, “One of the reasons I like it is the atmosphere and the live bands. They make it so fun. Those nights it’s fun to work and there’s a good crowd that comes in.”
Everything has been decorated to fit the cabin atmosphere, even the restrooms, which are “designed so you can be entertained the entire time you’re here,” Adair said. They were decorated, like the rest of the café, by Barbara Adair. “The restrooms are our trademark,” he said.
The café’s centerpiece is an “authentic majestic stove” which was owned and used by Adair’s grandma. The rest of the café is full of antiques that help capture the environment and the Old West feel.
“Our artistry is what happens in your mouth when you bite into one of our dishes,” Adair said. “It’s meant to be different from what you’ve had before.”
They also offer catering for weddings, luncheons and banquets.
To enjoy the “down home, southern hospitality,” the café is open Monday-Saturday at 7 a.m. It closes Monday-Thursday at 9 p.m. and Friday and Saturday at 10 p.m.
-hollyadams@cc.usu.edu
