New steakhouse opens in Palmer

PALMER — At the new Inn Café and Steakhouse, owners Brooke, Wes and Jamie Clements present a menu of high-end foods for low-end prices.

“I have to say we came in here on a dollar budget and made things work very well,” Wes said.

Wes and Jamie met 11 years ago and worked together for five years in the food industry before they were married. A couple years later, fueled by the desire to step up their game and go somewhere warmer, they decided to sell all their belongings — except for what they could fit in their Chevy Tahoe — and drive down to Las Vegas, Nevada with their 2-year-old son.

Wes had intended to attend culinary school there, but he soon discovered the one he chose wasn’t quite the right fit.

“It’s a great school, but it’s a good school for beginners,” Jamie said.

Between slogging through a rehash of the basics of culinary art, working jobs on the Strip and trying to find a daycare for their son, after about a year, Wes and Jamie were ready to come home.

“Everything was just kinda busy for us, but at the same time, what a great experience,” Wes said. “Las Vegas is, I don’t wanna call it the food capital of the world, but they do a lot of food there.”

“We learned a lot,” Jamie said.

Last fall, they moved back into their house in Palmer, which they had kept and rented out while they were away, and Wes quickly got a job at the Palmer Downtown Deli. Jamie started working as a contractor for the Post Office, and everything sort of went “back to normal.”

But that wasn’t enough. There were still dreams not yet realized. So, with the help of Wes’ brother Brooke, they opened the Steakhouse.

“We went from two years in the deli not knowing what was gonna go on to opening up our own business,” Wes said. “Things are great. I can’t complain, for sure.”

The Clements aren’t the only new kids on the restaurant block in Palmer either. Wes said he’s noticed the recent growth of the town in terms of the number of food-related businesses.

“I believe Palmer is becoming, I don’t wanna call it a magnet but there’s definitely a lot more foodie people coming around,” he said.

While one might think that more restaurants could, theoretically, mean more “competition,” Wes said, that’s not the way food works in Palmer, from their perspective. With a variety of options in a relatively small area like downtown Palmer, Jamie said, more people will be drawn in and more local people will stay, knowing they have the freedom to choose what kind of food they want on a given day.

As far as making money goes, the Clements don’t seem too concerned. Before they opened the businesses, Wes said, they deemed it more important for their customers to enjoy the food and atmosphere of the restaurant and keep coming back than to charge higher prices.

“I make what I gotta make to buy the food that I gotta buy to keep the people coming back,” he said.

So far, that game plan seems to be working. The Clements haven’t solicited advertising since they opened the restaurant, and self-promotion hasn’t seemed to be necessary. Customers who frequented the former Colony Inn Café showed up after the Fourth of July closure just as before; they were just entering a new restaurant at the same location, and soon the word spread about the unique place Jamie described as a quaint and cozy restaurant.

“There’s nobody really doing what we’re doing in Palmer,” Wes said. “There’s nobody that’s doing steak, ribs and chicken (the way we do).”

But that’s not all they serve. Their big Seafood Bucket, their Mushroom Bomb appetizer, filet mignon pretzel bread sliders, fresh-cut French fries, hand-dipped beer-battered onion rings and soups made from scratch daily are just a few of the most popular dishes on the menu. Their Cinnabun Sundae is especially tasty, Jamie said.

The Steakhouse is not as “hip and modern” as some restaurants — qualities Wes thinks his restaurant could use a little of someday, too — but they like the warmth and comfort of their place, as do their customers.

The Clements can also pride themselves on being able to provide a menu on which most items are under $15. Prices for meals such as the seafood bucket, steaks and ribs run higher, of course, but eating at the Steakhouse with a family of five won’t break the bank like it might at fancier places.

“We want it family-friendly,” Jamie said. “We want families to be able to come in and enjoy their meal, (and) not only enjoy it but afford it.”

The Steakhouse’s success also depends on the other employees, Wes said. A lot of the cooks left perfectly good jobs to work at the Steakhouse, and the Clements are grateful for that, since Wes “can’t cook all the time.”

“I’m only as good as the people that are making my food,” he said.

Contact Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.