Terryl Gavre has her hands so full one wonders how she can possibly get through her daily \u201cto-do\u201d list. Not only has the quirky Seattle native owned Downtown\u2019s Caf\u00e9 222 since 1992 and Bankers Hill Bar and Restaurant since 2010, she recently opened Bake Sale in East Village and has plans to spin off a cooking school from the bakery. When she\u2019s not running between her three restaurants, she\u2019s taking care of her two children, ages 10 and 7, and tends to the garden at her Bankers Hill home.<\/p>\n
The 40-something entrepreneur remembers when she was first negotiating the lease for Caf\u00e9 222, she told her future landlord, \u201cIf you think I\u2019m going to be doing this when I\u2019m in my 40s, you\u2019re crazy.\u201d But 22 years later, here she is.<\/p>\n
When Gavre moved to San Diego from the Pacific Northwest after a short stop in Los Angeles, she found what she thought was the perfect location for her first restaurant, but the address was 202 Island Ave \u2014 just one digit off. There wasn\u2019t much surrounding the location at the time, so she pulled some strings at the city and officially changed the address to 222, to match the name she planned to use for the restaurant, in homage to her great grandmother\u2019s address, the woman she credits with instilling in her a love for cooking and baking.<\/p>\n Known for its breakfast and the savvy marketing photo of Gavre with a waffle on her head, her quirky little restaurant \u2014\u00a0which many say mirrors her personality \u2014 got national attention early on when celebrity chef Bobby Flay came to Caf\u00e9 222 during the first season of his Food Network show, \u201cThe Best Thing I Ever Ate.\u201d<\/p>\n The meal the episode centered on? Her peanut butter and banana stuffed French toast.<\/p>\n \u201c[The episode] runs every couple of years now, and I know when it runs because we sell 50 of them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Much of the inspiration for the menu at the 75-seat caf\u00e9 comes from her mother and great grandmother; many items are time-tested favorites and so popular, she even offers the recipes online.<\/p>\n \u201cSome items I\u2019d love to take off the menu, but we\u2019ve been around so long that they\u2019ve become an institution with regulars and out-of-towners,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n After 18-months into her joint venture with Chef Carl Schroeder at Market in Del Mar, Gavre and Schroeder decided to open Bankers Hill Bar and Restaurant in 2010. As with Market, Schroeder handles the food and Gavre handles the front end; the naming, the hiring, the branding, and the marketing.<\/p>\n The rustic Bankers Hill eatery, once the home to \u201cThe French Side of the West\u201d restaurant at 222 Fourth Ave., is a full service dinner restaurant. The interior is full of reclaimed wood and brick and a huge leap from Caf\u00e9 222, but it still has a great deal of Gavre\u2019s personal touches.<\/p>\n A chandelier over the chef\u2019s table was made by her own hands using wine bottles and goblets she\u2019s collected over the years; a \u201cplant wall\u201d on the patio is something she and her mother started and grew in her backyard six months before the restaurant opened; the vintage artwork and antiques that adorn the walls are purchases she made from Architectural Salvage in Seattle; and though she\u2019s happy to not be fully responsible for the menu at Bankers Hill, she said she definitely puts her two cents in.<\/p>\n One of her favorites is a staple on the menu \u2014\u00a0and not what most would expect.<\/p>\n \u201cThe menu changes every two or three days,\u201d she said. \u201cThings rotate on and off. The burger is always on there, and if I can\u2019t find something I want, I always default to the burger. I probably eat them three times per month.\u201d<\/p>\n The Bankers Hill chandelier is something that follows a theme for Gavre, handmade items she constructs from salvaged materials.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s kind of my thing for each of my restaurants, I make one or two of the light fixtures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n At Caf\u00e9 222, the light fixtures are made from vintage cups and saucers and silverware and hang over every table, and at Bake Sale, she has vintage saucers and plates decorating a wall.<\/p>\n She said the restaurant, which she and Schroeder refer to as \u201clittle Market\u201d after their Del Mar joint-venture, has done well and is often \u201cbought out\u201d for holidays and Comic Con. Four years after opening Bankers Hill, she wanted more.<\/p>\n \u201cThey start to do well and run smoothly and my managers \u2014 I hire really well and have great employees and I come in and just get in the way,\u201d she said. \u201cThey don\u2019t need me any more so I get bored.\u201d<\/p>\n She decided to do something fun.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was always my fantasy to open a bakery,\u201d she said, referring to the walk-up bakery kitchen she purchased at 814 F St. in East Village.<\/p>\n \u201cBake Sale was something I always wanted to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI really wanted to bring in some young, up-and-coming female chefs and bakers. It\u2019s not about making money there \u2014 we\u2019re selling things for $3. It\u2019s more a passion project \u2014 and I can do that late in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n Now that her kids are in school, she needs more time to be with them and accommodate their busy schedules. But once the kids are off to school, she looks forward to the bakery and meeting up with her head baker, Kathleen Shen.<\/p>\n \u201cI go there in the morning, brainstorm, talk about cakes and baking classes, I don\u2019t see myself doing anything else for a while,\u201d she said. Although \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cWe started baking classes in October, and we\u2019ve had two per month, and they\u2019ve all sold out,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n The success of the cooking classes has made her reconsider slowing down. Now she is planning to expand the bakery into a cooking school, either on the premises or in a space around the corner.<\/p>\n \u201cHolding the classes once per week would be one way to help the business to become more viable,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n With Restaurant Week keeping Bankers Hill busy round-the-clock behind her, the month of February will have Gavre charging between her two other business.<\/p>\n Bake Sale isn\u2019t only about baked goods, it has chocolate and sandwiches, too. Starting on Feb. 7 through Valentine\u2019s Day, they\u2019ll be making hand-painted, heart-shaped holiday cookies that look just like Valentine\u2019s hearts. And since Chef Shen is a skilled chocolatier, they\u2019ll host a chocolate class on Feb. 10. At the end of the month, Caf\u00e9 222 will be offering a specialty sampler stack of pancakes, including their orange pecan pancakes, for National Pancake Day on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n There isn\u2019t room here to go into the interesting story that is Gavre\u2019s life before Caf\u00e9 222 \u2014 like those 10 years she ran her \u201cThe Surrogate Wife\u201d business in Seattle that led to a made-for-TV movie she co-starred in with Pam Dawber of \u201cMork and Mindy\u201d fame \u2014 but you\u2019ll just have to read that on her website.<\/p>\n Catch up with Gavre at one of her three restaurants by visiting their websites; cafe222.com; bankershillsd.com; and bakesalesd.com. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter, too, or stop in for a cookie before Valentine\u2019s Day. She\u2019ll be happy you did.<\/p>\n![\"](\"https:\/\/sandiegodowntownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Terryl-in-Bake-Sale2web.jpg\")
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