Blueberry Pancakes on the Regular at Multnomah Village’s Fat City Café

Fat City Café used to have more regulars. Helen Johnson, who’s owned the Multnomah Village breakfast institution for roughly half of the restaurant’s 49 years, remembers a group who’d often meet up around a big table near the back of the license plate–lined space, but the 2016 election seemed to break them up. Other onetime regulars haven’t been in as much through the pandemic or since they started working from home. 

Then there’s Tom. Born in Portland in 1952, Tom Kervin had somehow never popped into Fat City until about seven years ago, after he’d retired as an owner of a steel fabrication company. Making up for lost time, he’s now a fixture at Johnson’s counter. Even when he’s not there, he’s part of the decor.

How It Started: Kervin lives about 10 minutes from Multnomah Village and doesn’t remember which errands brought him to its little commercial strip that fateful day. He’d heard the story of former mayor Bud Clark famously firing a police chief over breakfast at Fat City in the ’80s and decided to check out this bit of Portland lore. “It was full. I snuck in and sat at the counter,” he recalls. “Within two or three minutes I was in conversation with some fellow to my right.”

Sweet Tooth: “Typically I’ll have a blueberry pancake, but occasionally I can be tempted with the strawberry waffle with whipped cream,” says Kervin. “Eggs don’t sit with me so well.” Sometimes when his daughter visits, he’ll get a giant “Sinnamon” roll, which Johnson serves with a knife stabbed in the center as if it were a giant pub burger.

Helping Out: It’s not that anyone asked Kervin to run to the grocery when the restaurant ran out of orange juice one day. Or expected him to tighten a screw on a shaky booth or help repair a radio. He just happened to be there. “I’m pretty handy,” he says. 

Part of the Place: See if you can spot a picture of Kervin and his wife under a glass tabletop. Hint: they were dressed up for a steampunk costume party. 

New Friends: “There are so many unbelievable people I’ve met sitting at the counter,” says Kervin, who’s talked foreign policy with a China expert from the US Army War College and chatted with artisans and blacksmiths about his time as a metal fabricator. “When I first retired, I made a goal to meet one new person every day,” he says. “At Fat City, I ran that streak out quite a long ways.”