Ponderosa Bakery and Café

At Ponderosa Bakery & Café, Biscuits and Gravy -- With a Slice of Local History -- Are Always on the Menu

By Andrea Hine, Contributing Writer

“Biscuits and gravy,” responded Candice Roseberry without hesitation when asked which of the menu items at Ponderosa Bakery & Cafe is the most popular. “We sometimes serve them all day long, especially on Sunday.” Her secret (or at least the part she was willing to share): “handle the dough as little as possible for the most tender results.” (Roseberry doesn’t even use a roller.)

The owner of Gilchrist’s newest breakfast and lunch dining option also had no trouble recalling aspects of the town’s history – going back to her great-grandfather’s involvement with Gilchrist Timber Company.

“He came out here with Frank Gilchrist in 1938,” when Gilchrist and his wife Mary relocated from Mississippi -- in search of lumber and lower taxes, building a dam on the Little Deschutes River to create the mill pond – “and helped him move a lot of equipment from back East. Both my great-grandfather and grandfather worked as timber fallers,” said Roseberry. “I’m the fourth generation of my family to reside in Gilchrist, and even wrote my college thesis on an aspect of the logging operations.”

The last lumber company town in Oregon, Gilchrist was founded by the timber-companyowning couple, who had all the houses painted the same brown color -- “so the community was also known as ‘Browntown,’” recalled Roseberry, who also remembers seeing police on horseback.

“The lawn in front of Ponderosa Bakery & Café lawn used to be entirely covered with teenagers after school let out – myself among them – who were drawn to the triple attractions of a pizza parlor, supermarket and movie house,” she said.

“And we celebrated prom upstairs in what was originally a club for Gilchrist Lumber Company employees that featured a bar and lounge area, dance floor, pool tables, and a large meeting hall.”

Back to the present, Roseberry’s acquisition of a space previously occupied by a restaurant – but that had been empty for years – proved “a little overwhelming at first. But I just keep chugging away at it, and am glad I started slowly – opening just before winter – so we’ll already be set in motion before the summer rush.”

Roseberry said that “a lot of people come from La Pine to check us out,” which broadens her sustaining local customer base. And she appreciates that some of Gilchrist’s “old timers regularly drive down from Bend to support the café – including two men in their 90s. We always have a lot to talk about.”

(Ponderosa Bakery & Café, located at 138357 N. U.S. 97 (at the north end of Gilchrist Mall), is open 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Thursday – Monday; closed Tuesday & Wednesday.)

Owner Candice Roseberry is the fourth generation of her family to live in Gilchrist.

A variety of freshly made baked goods fills the café’s display cases.