Willow restaurant celebrates a year in business

Located just off of the Parks Highway and only steps from the banks of Willow Creek, Burnt Toast is a small restaurant nestled behind the Pioneer Lodge.

Described by owner Karin Mills as a “food truck where the wheels fell off,” the restaurant celebrated a year in business this month. Despite its small size, the restaurant has established a reputation for consistently putting out high quality food… and doing so with a smile.

“It’s just a friendly service we want to provide, and it seems like that’s what everybody wants,” Mills said. “It’s uncomplicated, and Willow seems to be uncomplicated. It seems that we’ve been able to put an uncomplicated business in there which makes me happy that it all fits together so well.”

Originally from Austria, Mills said she spent a lot of time travelling across the Lower 48, bouncing between states like Colorado and Florida. Six years ago Mills hopped in her truck, camper strapped down tight, and drove her way from Florida all the way to Prudhoe Bay - where the road ended. She would work at the Yukon River Camp for a while, before travelling to Seward where she worked for a few summers. With her camper “bursting at the seams,” chock full of outdoor gear, Mills decided it was time to find somewhere to settle down. She ended up purchasing property on Hatcher Pass, and has been part of the Willow community since.

“I remember the first step I took into Alaska, it felt more like home than any other place I’ve been in. So I decided, I’m going to stay,” Mills said.

Mills said she was familiar with restaurant work, having spent time in everything from corporate roles all the way to cooking in small mom-and-pop cafes. Hospitality and restaurant jobs were an easy way to find work in Alaska, she said, and the seasonality of Alaska made the work easy to find. She began working at the Willow Trading Post as a cook, but after nine months, work ended, and she soon grew antsy. She said she walked into the Pioneer Lodge one day and it became immediately apparent that the kitchen might be available. She said she had nothing better to do than give it a go.

Mills first took stock of what the space had to offer. She said it was small and lacked the space she would need. They would end up expanding and adding on to provide them with more room. The initial concept was to keep the business small, but Mills quickly realized that that wouldn’t be the case for long.

“I wanted it to be something small and manageable, which it kind of grew out of that very quickly,” Mills said. “It was supposed to be a one-man operation.”

Mills reached out to her friend Maria Reutov and asked if she wanted to help start the business. The two met while working in the kitchen at The Willow Trading Post, and Reutov said that Mills called her to ask for help jump-starting the restaurant prior to the 2024 Iditarod. Mills operated the business herself but soon realized that she couldn’t do it all on her own. She called Reutov once again for help, and she has been her right hand woman ever since. Together, they helped create what Burnt Toast is today.

”We started it off, just me and her,” Reutov said.

When it came time to pick a name, Mills said she wanted something unique. She said she didn’t want something generic, but something fun, lighthearted, and not serious. She started collecting names on a large notepad and after she had filled two pages, began crossing names off until one name remained: Burnt Toast.

“Funny story,” Mills laughed. “I'm really good at burning toast, it’s one of my specialties. One of my previous jobs, I always had to go out to the poor folks ordering breakfast and tell them, ‘you’re toast is coming up, I burnt the first one, you don't want it.”

Reutov laughed when she remembered how Mills was always burning toast when they were making breakfast together in the kitchen.

“She always kept burning toast,” Reutov said.

When it came to building the menu, Mills had to keep the small space in mind. She came up with a lot of ideas and cooked through them, eliminating anything that wouldn’t be feasible in the tiny space. From there she modified and grew the menu based on customer feedback. It has since grown to include traditional breakfast options, a variety of sandwiches and starters for lunch and dinner, as well as hamburgers, fish and chips and more. Burnt Toast also offers a variety of weekly and seasonal holiday specials.

The business started slow but steady in the spring of 2024, Mills said. It gave them an opportunity to really work through their menu and dial in the business. By May, the weather became increasingly nicer, outdoor seating opened up and tourists began to arrive. Mills said they received a lot of support from the community early on, from people helping to procure ingredients to building and creating things the business needed.

The summer months were busy, with Mills and Reutov working over 14 hours a day nearly every day. Personal lives took a backseat, as did just about everything else Mills said.

“A little place like that usually doesn't kick out as much food as we did last summer,” Mills said. “We learned a lot and we learned how to make it work.”

As the season wound down, both Mills and Reutov were able to take a well-deserved break. The business took a few weeks off during the fall before reopening and keeping a steady flow of customers throughout the winter.

This year is looking even better, especially with more help in the kitchen. Samantha and Dakota Schafer, a mother-son duo, have both joined the crew at Burnt Toast. They work wherever they are needed - washing dishes, prepping ingredients and accepting take-out orders. Samantha also cooks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays to give Mills a couple of days off from behind the grill.

Mills said there would be new things to look forward to this year, with even more seasonal celebrations, more outdoor seating and more live entertainment. She wants to create a central place for people within the community to gather. She wants to be a stop for people travelling along the highway. The kitchen and crew will take a short break in the spring to rest and prepare for a busy summer season ahead.

The success of the business hasn’t come without its challenges. Mills said the behind-the-scenes paperwork, ingredient procurement and point-of-sale system were part of their learning process early on. She believes they have most of the “hiccups” worked out at this point and will be ready to move forward and grow even more this year.

“We can focus on what we want to focus on, which is providing the food and a place to go eat in Willow,” Mills said.

If there’s one thing about Burnt Toast that has been as consistent as the food, it’s the support they’ve received from their community. All of the crew mentioned how much it means to them to work in such a small community that they themselves reside in. To be able to provide an outlet and a product that makes people want to come back is what keeps them going.

“It’s been phenomenal what they’ve been saying about us,” Mills said. “Every smile, every review, every handshake we get, every photo a tourist wants to take. It’s just a big thank you to us. Something that we were able to brighten their day for a minute, even if it was just a burger, but it made their day, it makes me happy.”

“The community… everybody has helped us out a lot,” Reutov said. “I love Willow. I’ll never leave Willow.”

Burnt Toast is a product of the community. It’s a small, lowkey, uncomplicated business, Mills said, and is built upon a love for making consistently good, uncomplicated food in a very uncomplicated community.

“I really want to thank the community for all the support we’ve received,” Mills said. “Whether it was through them lending us a hand, or their continuous loyalty, it’s just been absolutely amazing and I couldn’t think of anything I would rather do right now at this point in my life.”

“And, we serve burnt toast in a very limited fashion,” Mills laughed.