There is a place in Walla Walla that was opened by Chef Andrae Bopp in a Cenex gas station of all places. I happened to read a review about Andrae’s in the local paper or on Facebook or in a travel magazine, I no longer recall where I first saw mention of the kitchen, and I was intrigued so checked out their web site: Andrae’s Kitchen.
After checking out the menu, which includes pictures of some dishes, I read an excellent review of both the kitchen and the Walla Walla area in this Travel + Leisure article by Ray Isle. That article cinched it for me and I decided I needed to visit. An upscale meal from a gas station?? Yeah, count me in! I rarely eat red meat any more except as a treat so a beef burger by a real chef suits my fancy these days.
One thing on the menu that was interesting was that they also have a food truck, for some strange reason parked way out in Minam. At the time I saw that, I didn’t even know where that was and I grew up in the valley. Didn’t recall every hearing the name of the town. Looked it up and it’s over an hours drive from where I’m staying in Milton Freewater up in the Blue Mountains. Seems a bit strange they have a food truck there but I ran into a photo of their featured Beef Brisket Burger basket that just looked so mouth watering that I called up my son and invited him to take a ride with me out there to have dinner. Why not? Son knew of Andrea’s Kitchen at the gas station but jumped at the idea of checking out Minam’s place.
So off we headed to basically a wide spot in the road at the confluence of two rivers…the Minam and Wallowa Rivers. We took the 204 through Tollgate and joined up with the 82 at the lumber town Elgin.
Hunter the dog enjoying the scenery. The window was down most of the trip.
