Our Sunday morning breakfast group chose to dine at Knapp’s Restaurant in the Proctor District. I was so excited. They have long been a favorite restaurant for breakfast. Their hash browns were my ideal: dark brown and crispy. They had great bacon and sausage served with excellent toast and lots of Smucker’s jam/jelly choices. Their gravy was thick and flavorful. It was the ideal mid-America diner for both breakfast, lunch, and dinner. With all of the new apartments and condos business should be booming. However, things have changed. Knapp’s has changed. It’s not a good change.
Everyone that ordered hash browns either gave no indication of how they wanted them cooked except for two who asked for crispy. I of course asked for my usual hash brown request: burnt, burnt, burnt . . . with an onion cut up in them. The delivered hash browns around the table all looked exactly the same. I had a small amount of hash browns mixed with onions placed on top of my hash browns. The hash browns where thin and had very little flavor, much like the chicken apple sausage links. I could have sent my hash browns back, but we had already waited longer than we thought we should have. My friends joked that it was because I asked for burnt, burnt, burnt. Knapp’s was not busy. In our dining room there were two other parties of two or three people.
My wife Peg asked for berries to eat with her scrambled eggs as a substitution for toast. They was never delivered. The scrambled eggs were like everything else on our order. Zero flavor.
I asked for a cup of SOS for my hash browns and toast. Everything seemed to be missing salt and pepper or butter. The toast had a spread, but the slices seemed thin. My SOS? SOS should have either hamburger or sausage mixed with fried onions in a white roux of flour, salt, pepper, and milk. Personally, I would add a little garlic powder or smoky paprika. Whomever made the gravy either used a basic add-liquid mix or forgot to add the meat. Picture a good biscuits and gravy breakfast . . . and take out the pieces of meat, the hint of frying pan color, basic spices . . . and thin it down . . . and you have the gravy I was served from Knapp’s. It tasted like slightly thick milk with an occasional lump.
When we got home, Peg took her dry left-over scrambled eggs and tasteless hash browns, added them to a pan with a small pat of butter, and started adding the essentials for taste: salt, pepper, a smidgen of garlic powder, a shake of paprika, and a sprinkling of dried thyme. She said everything tasted 100% better. Our breakfasts at Knapp’s smacked of cheap, which is a little strange when we had no coffee, but received an invoice for just under $30, plus tip. My toast came with one packet of raspberry jam.
Empty restaurant tables in an affluent shopping district that has hundreds and hundreds of condo/apartment people living just across the street is not a good sign. Knapp’s should read the writing on the wall . . . or at least re-read some of their old recipes.
Mr. Doman, your title, “No Reason to Return – Knapp’s Restaurant Review” is quite a strong de-recommendation (de-recommendation = new word invented by me which means the opposite of recommendation, more than not-so recommendation)
I have occasionally enjoyed Knapps Restaurant from time to time for close to 60 years.
Because I believe there are always two sides to every story, I thought long and hard to come up with a reason for returning to Knapp’s Restaurant and I came up with several reasons which provide some rock-solid thoughts allowing your readers to take your review with a grain of salt, a pat of real butter, a dash of seaonings a jar of Smuckers, to coin a phrase..
Reasons to return to Knapps:
#1. Return to Knapps if say, you left your wallet on the table.
#2. Return to Knapps and order ice-water all around followed by using the Five Guys app on your smartphone to order burgers To Go, which you have delivered to Knapps by UBER.
#3. Return to Knapps after being so disappointed with the food you jumped up and drove away without finishing your meal with the waiters tip stil in your pocket. Four blocks away you discover Peg was in the ladies room when you dashed off.
See, there are reasons to return to Knapp’s. Don, if my reasons are not convincing enough, you know me. I can come up with more reasons of the same quality.
You can also see, I am sure, that I do not write restaurant reviews.
Joseph Boyle – A guy who always loves a Don Doman challenge.
Joseph,
Thank you for your comments.
After writing articles I always have Peggy take a look and make suggestions, corrections, and changes. I asked if I had been too hard on Knapp’s in the review. She shook her head and said, “No.” There were actually other issues not mentioned. We were surprised. It reminded me of two of my last reviews and visits of The Harmon, and The Harmon Hub (which closed last July). I wanted The Hub to be successful . . . I want Knapp’s to be successful. Knapp’s just felt like it was doing just enough to get by. To gather and keep customers, restaurants need to offer value and taste. Those were both missing. If Knapp’s remains in business another three or four months I’ll return and try them out. Like you, I have loved their food for decades. They were the epitome of perfectly cooked hash browns. Now, they are less than also rans.
Thanks for the comment. If they do stay open, perhaps the two of us should try them out sometime after the first of the year.
Don
I used to go to Knapp’s for breakfast/dinner when I worked graveyard shifts. Back then the ‘hashbrowns’ were more like cut-up/diced potatoes fried with green onions. Drinks were strong, prices were reasonable. I even remember meals were ‘family style’ on Sundays (a million years ago). But I suppose everything changes? Too bad.
Coraline,
Thanks for commenting.
I agree . . . too bad. I was vastly disappointed. Possibly new management. New timers? Running off the old customers? Value pays off, while penny-pinching is often cents-less.
Thanks for sharing.
Don
Return for a wallet. Hah. More likely a set of teeth. Knapps has fallen a mile. From a spot that was not good to begin with. Friendly service, but not enough to overcome the overpriced wreck it has become.
Mr. Dorsett,
“…set of teeth.” Hah, hah, and more laughter. Your comment is an excellent effort to build humor on my attempt at humor, plus more fun with Don.
Joseph Boyle
Joseph,
As you know, I love biting remarks.
Don
Dick,
Thanks for the comment . . . a little harsh on what Knapp’s used to be. It was friendly place for breakfast meetings and perfectly cooked hash browns.
Thanks for sharing . . . nice comment from Joe on your comment as well.
Don
How sad. When I was a child, going to Knapp’s was a special treat. The food was tasty and well served. The waitresses were friendly and usually remembered you. But when I took a friend there for a St. Patrick’s Day meal of corned beef and cabbage, it was, to put it kindly, a disaster. This was a few years ago, and guess they have fallen even further. Thanks for the review, Don. I always enjoy your articles.
Frances
Frances,
Thanks for the comment about your own disappointment.
Our Christmas House Board met their every month for years. Like you say, great service and tasty food. Disaster is unfortunate . . . it’s like losing an old friend.
Thanks for sharing.
Don
I hope that this dismal review does not bury an institution. Over the course of more than 60 years I have logged, I have learned that one bad meal experience from a restaurant as venerable as Knapps should not mean the death of that business. A meal is only as good as that one day, that one person on the line or serving, one sick call-in or otherwise. While reviews are helpful if the decision maker takes note, scathing ones (and headlines) like this can ruin a business under internal reconstruction. And while Knapps is looked at and expected to be this staid, reliable institution, it has gone through many changes and challenges. How does a Knapps compete for business and staffing when right around the corner a bustling 6th Avenue millennial restaurant round-up has exploded? Clearly, they need to make changes but their presence is a foundation for that area, I hope they never go away.
I will go back to Knapps. Sooner than later now that this review has been published.
Cindy,
Thanks for your comments.
We will return also. I hope they can get their act together. There were just so many things to improve upon. Number one is the food. They are not really competing against Cactus, I think they are competing against Manny’s, which has great food, decent prices, and the follow through on food/cooking requests. Manny’s is fairly new to Proctor, but Alfred’s on Puyallup Avenue as been around for ages.
Thanks for sharing.
Don
The change of owners since our family owned the restaurant in the 70s has caused all these changes. It is now more like a chain as the Tvten family now owns it plus the Harvester, Hob Nob, Burs in Lakewood, and perhaps others, so they are run by different managers. We have been very saddened by what has happened.
Patricia,
Thank you for commenting.
Well, I hope it’s just a transition phase. We’ve been regulars at the Harvester for years. They lost an entire crew earlier this year, and so some things there are a little off-kilter, too. I hope Knapp’s rekindles some verve in the kitchen. When the food is lacking . . . the customers will be, also.
Thank you for sharing about the situation. Let’s both wish them good luck. I will return in a month or two to see if they’ve improved. In the mean time our little Sunday morning breakfast group dined at Brush Prairie for a perfect meal . . . with crispy hash browns and good gravy!!!!!
Thanks, again.
Don