Pancake challenge, humor greet customers at new cafe

LAKEVIEW — Richelle Grant's favorite customers are the grouchy ones.

They're the people she has the most fun with as she waits tables.

"I have a blast with the grumpiest ones," she said, noting she greets one of her customers first thing in the morning with a "'Good morning, sunshine love bucket!' … And almost every day, I get a smile out of that guy."

Grant and her mother, Sassy Bartholow, opened their business, the Mad Hatter Cafe and Comedy Club, located at 375 W. Highway 28 in Lakeview, between Soap Lake and Ephrata, on May 2. Grant primarily waits tables, while Bartholow cooks the food.

"It's really funny — we've had some really grumpy characters come in here and they bite heads off when they first come in," Bartholow said. "They keep coming back and it's like, they smile in spite of themselves."

Residents of Grant County for over 13 years — Bartholow lives in Wilson Creek, while Grant now resides in Moses Lake — it's not the first time the mother-daughter team has offered food; it's just the first they've had a permanent place in which to work.

For five years as a hobby, Grant and Bartholow would camp out at big events and campgrounds. Bartholow builds camping equipment, and began cooking on a large barbecue grill.

"People would come and want to eat," she said, recalling how she began cooking for the customers, eventually putting together a mobile, 40-foot canopy, with half designated to serve people and half devoted to kitchen space.

While working in that fashion, Bartholow and Grant showed up at an event with some unusual hats, in hopes of garnering some attention.

"We always flip each other crap while flipping eggs and bacon," Grant explained. "We always joke back and forth, and that was part of the draw to come and eat at our cafe, was we had a lot of fun."

"Because there was this comic routine going on behind the grill," Bartholow agreed. Upon seeing them wearing the hats, people kept passing by and saying, "Yeah, there's the Mad Hatters!" and it stuck, she recalled. "So for five years, we ran a temporary food establishment called the Mad Hatter Cafe, and we brought bright colors and comic, and we would just flip people a bunch of crap, and it's kind of an interplay thing, just a real light and zany atmosphere."

After demand became so large it was hard to carry enough food, the Mad Hatters decided to open up a restaurant, and plan to open a comedy club in August. Bartholow said they still plan to take the mobile unit around to different fairs and festivals as well.

"We're not only trying to bring a fresh idea in dining, but also a fresh idea in entertainment," Bartholow said, noting the lack of a comedy club in the vicinity. "This may be a teeny-tiny building, but we want our impact on the people that come in here to be huge."

Live comedians will perform on Fridays and Saturdays, with amateur improv on Sundays. A Seattle agent will be scouting on a quarterly basis. The winners of a small cash prize each Sunday will go on to compete for a possible contract with a professional agency.

In the meantime, fun abounds in the restaurant, with toys on the tables for customers to play with and an air cannon that Grant likes to blast at people on a regular basis.

"When you walk into the Mad Hatter Cafe, you're likely to encounter just about anything," Bartholow said. "Sometimes we serve dessert before the meal, sometimes not. We serve some of the biggest portions around."

The duo challenges that anyone capable of eating the tall stack of pancakes will get their meal free, a feat which they say has not been accomplished in five years.

It's all in an effort to offer a different entertainment alternative or hum-drum atmosphere, the pair says.

"This place is interactive, it's friendly, it's kid-friendly, and kids of all ages can have fun here," Bartholow said.

"Whether you're nine or 90," Grant echoed. "And some of our best kids that come in are over 90."

Some of those customers are Bartholow's favorites.

"What's really a crack up is we'll get a couple of little old people walk in, they sit down, and we take their order, walk around the corner and you'll see them over here, playing with the toys," she said. "My grandmother said, 'When you forget how to play, you begin to die.' So this place is all about fun, light-spiritedness and we want to keep it that way."

The Mad Hatter Cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays and until about 9 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.Zany like a Mad Hatter