Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in Sound & Summit
A man in an ill-fitting black suit and fake FBI name tag walked into the diner.
Nobody batted an eye.
Patrons kept right on eating cherry pie and drinking a damn fine cup of coffee.
It has been 35 years since Twede’s Cafe was in the first “Twin Peaks” series as the fictional Double R Diner, where the dapper Special Agent Dale Cooper came to investigate the mysterious death of homecoming queen Laura Palmer. The diner in North Bend continued as a focal point in the second series and the movie as well.
To locals, it’s a place to eat.
To Peaks fans, it’s a place on the bucket list.
The costumed FBI guy could have been either.
The series, set in a small logging town, was co-created by director David Lynch, who added a dose of surrealism to the mystery-drama mix. When “Twin Peaks” premiered on ABC in 1990, there was nothing out there like it. I was among many Baby Boomers who faithfully tuned in weekly, captivated by the kooky characters and steamy plot on my clunky cathode ray tube TV that made the soundtrack more haunting. Even on the fuzzy screen, the slick Agent Cooper, played by Washingtonian Kyle MacLachlan, was hotter than the coffee.
A “damn fine cup” of coffee, as he coined it.
The foothills of the Cascade Mountains, 30 miles east of Seattle, is “Twin Peaks” territory.
The opening credits of “Twin Peaks” include the majestic Snoqualmie Falls, about 4 miles from Twede’s Cafe in real life. The Reinig Bridge, a battered railroad trestle bridge known on the show as Ronette’s Bridge, crosses the Snoqualmie River. The Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department (Sheriff Harry S. Truman, at your service) is now DirtFish, a rally driving school in Snoqualmie.
In Snohomish County, a Dutch colonial home in Monroe, 32 miles away, was the Palmer house in the 1990-91 series. A similar white colonial home in the Rucker Hill neighborhood of Everett was shown in the pilot episode and the 1992 movie prequel, “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me.” After a 25-year hiatus, Lynch and his crews returned to the Everett home for the 18-episode series “Twin Peaks: The Return” on Showtime in 2017. The homeowner got a bit part out of the deal.
The North Bend diner was also transformed back into the Double R Diner for the Showtime season.
“A place both wonderful and strange” is the motto of the diner, built in 1941. It sits on the corner of Highway 202 and North Bend Way, marked by a neon sign under the shadow of Mount Si.
The cafe has changed hands and names a few times over the years. In 2000, the building had major fire damage, but was rebuilt and returned to its former glory.
In 2020, Max Spears and his wife, Rachel Bennett, purchased the cafe and are keeping the Double R legacy alive.
“We still serve the same kind of food,” she said.
Sunday at noonish on a sunny summer day is probably the worst time to go to the cafe if you have a carload of people hangry from the one-hour drive from Everett.
Every seat was taken at the tables and double-sided counter. Spears and a dozen servers moved briskly, taking orders and balancing trays of food cooked up in the back.
The wait time for our party of four adults and three kids was at least 45 minutes.
”Leave your number and I’ll call you when a table is ready,” Spears told me.
That allowed time to explore the town, but not enough time to get a tattoo of the Log Lady at the parlor across the street.
It was easy to kill an hour walking around. A selfie-ready mural of the “Welcome to Twin Peaks, Population 51,201” sign is painted on the alley wall of the diner. The population of North Bend is about 8,000.
Shops offer a variety of Peaks-themed merchandise and there’s a Twin Peaks Pub. Across the railroad tracks is the quaint North Bend train depot, which offers a 2-hour scenic ride to the mystical Snoqualmie Falls.
Tempting, but I kept hearing Agent Cooper’s voice saying, “They got a slice of pie that will kill you.”
The call from Spears that our table was ready was just in time.
We squeezed around a corner table in the front, bordered on two sides by windows with lace curtains, offering an ethereal look at people walking by.
The diner was noisy in a good way with chatter and the clatter of dishes. Other than the cosplay FBI guy, everybody else wore casual street clothes.
After ordering, there was time to mill around the diner to see where Agent Cooper and others sat in scenes from the campy cult-classic.
A collection of studio pictures of Peaks characters hang in crooked rows on a back red wall across from the restrooms that have seen better days.
Episodes of “Twin Peaks” play on a small TV-VCR unit on the counter. Merch for sale includes stickers, pins, keychains, RR mugs and T-shirts. A pound bag of souvenir coffee beans, made by a Seattle roaster, is $15.
A mug of damn fine coffee served hot at the cafe is $2.75.
A slice of pie is $7.25, and a whole pie is $25.
The pie is made from scratch and the crust is flaky and buttery. For those hankering from afar, Good Belly will ship a pie for about $75.
“This pie is fire,” said Ben Galassi, 28, of Lynnwood, who had his a la mode.
And the coffee?
“I would say it is above average,” he said.
Galassi has been to Twede’s a few times. He stops by after camping trips.
“I like to sit in the back corner so I have a vantage point of the rest of the room,” he said.
He’s a fan of the pie and Peaks.
“That show is so weird,” he said.
Yes, it is. The 2017 “Twin Peaks: The Return” series is even weirder. Even with dreamboat Kyle MacLachlan, now even hunkier on a flat screen TV, I couldn’t make it through the series that was like a nonstop LSD flashback.
Breakfast at Twede’s is served all day.
A classic breakfast is $13.50. Pancakes, waffles and french toast start at $8.75.
Lunch items include roast beef with mashed potatoes and gravy ($16.25), Reuben ($16.50) and burgers ($14.50+). Dinner options include country fried steak ($19) and haddock with pineapple salsa ($19).
The senior menu has discounted meals for $11.50. Kids have a $5-ish menu with mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and animal-shaped pancakes.
The total bill for our party of seven was under $100, including tip and two $1 postcards of Agent Cooper (of course). The fries and omelet rated high on our likes, and the cherry pie was to die for.
Photographer Ryan Berry went big and ordered the country breakfast ($22.50) that has ham, bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese, fried cubed potatoes and gravy. He had to get a to-go box.
“It was a solid breakfast,” Berry said. “I saw a young couple who ordered it and split it and I don’t think they finished it.”
He’s a Peaks fan and made it through the “The Return” series unscathed.
“It was weird, but it was David Lynch. What do you expect?” he said.
His favorite character?
“Nadine, the one with the eyepatch who gets the super strength,” he said. “And Log Lady is lovely.”
With Laura Palmer the central character, longtime waitress Laura Lewis has heard all the Laura jokes.
She’d fib about her name. “Back in the day I’d say, ‘It’s Linda,’” she said.
The cafe is her side hustle now. After taking another job decades ago, she just couldn’t give it up.
“During the weekdays there’s more regulars,” she said. “On weekends, it’s more people passing through and fans of the show.”
Eric Kenney and his 5-year-old son sat at the counter. They live in Snoqualmie.
“We come here for the food, not for the nostalgia around Twin Peaks,” he said. “I’ve never even had the cherry pie.”
He is missing out.
It is damn fine.
Andrea Brown is a former employee of The Everett Herald.
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