WAWeekend: Breakfast Thrills at Blueberry Hills

While ‘thrills’ might be a tad bit dramatic for our favorite breakfast stop east of Washington State’s Cascade Mountains, it is a place not to be missed.  (And get there early or prepare for lines like this one!)

The quality -- and quantity -- of food, the views and its location, just outside Manson on Lake Chelan put Blueberry Hills on our recommended list and keep it there year after year.


Set back a couple miles from the lake shore and surrounded by orchards and vineyards, this eatery overlooking 10 acres of some 3,000 blueberry bushes, packs them in each morning come rain or shine.






Arrive early to nab a table on the outside deck in summer months at this family-owned operation.  Sitting there, you can watch others in the ‘you pick’ field or enjoy the view of  the area’s well-known, Slide Ridge, pictured here.






And take note dog lovers:  they’ve got a special gate on the deck, just for four-legged furry ones.

Owners Roger and Linda Sorensen converted the family’s homestead and apple orchard to blueberries in 1999.  They’d originally planned to operate a fruit stand, but one thing led to another and the restaurant serving ‘down home scratch country cooking’ evolved.


You'll serve yourself beverages here and pick up your flatware as well. And then – if you didn’t nab an outside table, you settle in at a table amid a most eclectic collection of memorabilia to await the arrival of the food you ordered at the counter when you arrived.






Finally, when you reluctantly push yourself away from the table (some chairs have had rollers added to ease that effort), don't forget to buy a piece of berry pie (or a whole one) to take with you or, in season, the berries themselves.









If you go: 
Blueberry Hills is at 1315 Washington Street, Manson, 98831, 509-687-2329, www.wildaboutberries.com
Overnight accommodations are available both in nearby Manson, or Chelan just a bit further away.  For lodging information contact the Lake Chelan Visitors Center.