40 years and going strong | Gilman Village’s oldest business, The Boarding House, celebrates major milestone

Jene Kramer had wanted her own restaurant since she was a little girl.

“Instead of playing house, I’d play restaurant,” she said. “I had a knack for it.”

As the oldest of seven children her mom would turn her loose in the kitchen. Kramer said she could prepare dinner for the whole family for $10.

The Boarding House restaurant opened in Issaquah’s Gilman Village in 1973. It is the last original business in the village. Kramer and her business partner, Mary Ann Mizokawa, had years of experience as waitresses and kitchen help. For a while, Kramer worked for an insurance company in Bellevue as a medical adjustor for injured Boeing workers, but the company lost its contract with Boeing, so the office closed.

“I was so thrilled,” she said. “I had no business in that business.”

However, with her severance, she was able to buy the Boarding House.

Kramer, a lifelong resident of Bellevue, remembers going there with her mom. She even remembers the table she sat at talking to the original owners about buying her own restaurant someday. The Boarding House was a meeting place — everyone knew it, she said.

“The whole cachet of this restaurant was a black box of recipes these four women had,” Kramer said.

The Boarding House is open only for lunch. The menu is not fussy, rather just good fresh, wholesome food that needs no fancy adornment. Before she owned The Boarding House, Kramer and Mizokawa both spent time traveling. Kramer went to Europe just to look at food.

Her emphasis is fresh food; from the garden, farm or sea.

“If I want to make something, I just make it,” she said.

The menu is made up of very creative salads, soups, sandwiches and desserts. The Boarding House signature salad is what made them famous Kramer said. She uses only black forest ham and roasts her own meats. There is no processed food, no GMOs, no MSG and she is particularly proud to say there is no waste. For example, the bread is all baked fresh. The bread ends aren’t always the most attractive to serve, so Kramer, who is the baker, chops them up and makes a pumpkin bread pudding, then serves it with fresh whipped cream which she sources from Medosweet Farms in Kent and homemade ice cream.

Kramer still makes the original apple crisp and carrot cake recipes that were in that little black box, but the rest of the desserts are her creation. She drives to LaConner to get strawberries for shortcake from a local farmer — she won’t use California strawberries for shortcake, only for garnish.

Every day she has a cream soup and a non-cream soup. People ask for the potato dill soup — it’s delicious.

Mizokawa is happy to be “the back of the house,” while Kramer is the front of the house as well as the baker. They have a small staff, but they are all a team and are part of the thought process.

Three of the four original owners are still in the area, and come in often. The restaurant seats 48 to 50 inside, but with the generous deck area, capacity can double on a nice summer day.

“We do run out of things, because we make everything,” Kramer said.

To celebrate 40 years of The Boarding House, on Saturday, July 13, Kramer and Mizokawa are rolling back the prices to what they were in 1973. All they ask is that patrons bring a food donation for the Issaquah Food Bank or pet food for the Seattle Humane Society.

Kramer said buying this particular restaurant was a gut feeling, even after being told not to buy it. She had tried to buy another but it didn’t work out.

“This one — it took nine months but it kept coming back to me,” Kramer said. “I feel so lucky after 47 years that I get to do what I love to do. I am so incredibly lucky to have my heart’s desire.”

Situated in the original family home built by Albert Anderson, which was moved from Front Street in 1972, The Boarding House is open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, with brunch specials. A limited beer and wine list is available.

The July 13 event is from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This stain glass door was broken into the first Christmas that Jene Kramer owned the Boarding House. Fortunately the Issaquah glass artist still had the original design, so Kramer had it remade exactly as it was.