University Place diner to reopen under new local ownership, adding brunch and cocktails

After more than 60 years of pancakes, omelets, benedicts and endless carafes of coffee, Pine Cone Cafe closed its doors in University Place as the pandemic began, its fate undetermined. Owner Steve Warp, who bought the restaurant in 1986, promised The News Tribune that it would “rise again.”

“I need to find someone I trust,” he said in late 2020.

The old-school diner has found that new life in the deft hands of Dana and Dave Verellen — the couple behind Dusty’s Hideaway and Zodiac Supper Club in Tacoma.

The giant menu of 100-plus dishes will be whittled down to a more manageable level for a modern restaurant, but Dana Verellen promises the classics will remain: chicken-fried steak, hash browns, eggs in various styles.

Expect more from-scratch cooking and contemporary brunch dishes — perhaps scalloped potatoes in a cast iron pan, fancy toasts, something resonant of a benedict but not dripping in hollandaise. Similar to Dusty’s, where all-day breakfast is a real and delicious thing, The Pine Cone will serve breakfast, brunch and lunch dishes until 9 p.m., likely alongside nightly specials. Verellen especially loved the Sunday Thanksgiving plate.

Chef Rob Richard is developing this modern diner menu, while also updating the kitchen at Zodiac, the Verellens’ funky cocktail bar and grill-your-own meats destination in Hilltop. Treats there and at Dusty’s are sourced from Brianne Day, the pastry maven behind Spilled Butter Desserts. She will up the ante at Pine Cone with several pie flavors plus cake, cinnamon rolls and other morning baked goods.

“It definitely is a diner,” said Dana Verellen. “It’s just not exactly the diner that it was.”

They have ripped out the carpet, installing new floors and walls, plus a bigger refrigerator in the back. The lunch counter will stay, as will the pine-green booths. It will look different to longtimers, she admitted, but they intend to stay true to its decades-old heart.

HAVE A DRINK AT PINE CONE UP

Perhaps the biggest difference will be the liquor license.

“Steve was killing it, and he never served alcohol,” said Verellen, “but we’re not that place.”

Cocktails are integral to the experience at both Dusty’s and Zodiac, the latter of which was an early adopter (2015) of boozy slushies, which for now won’t make an appearance at The Pine Cone.

Think daytime drinks with Verellen’s signature unpretentious style: “More straightforward but still using fun ingredients. Light drinks is kind of where I’m going.”

Bloodies will be there, but no over-the-top skewers of stuff — just a great housemade mix and probably gin instead of vodka. Of course there will be coffee, likely served in the existing stash of 500 white mugs.

Regulars of the old Pine Cone might notice a smaller footprint, as Warp converted a small section of the front dining room into office space in 2020.

Though not explicitly looking to open a third restaurant, the Verellens couldn’t pass up the opportunity to resurrect a beloved institution that happens to be three blocks from their home. Thanks in part to their daughter’s affinity for the diner’s home fries, they often visited multiple times a week. The staff knew them by name.

Last fall, they messaged Warp out of the blue to express their interest in buying the business if he were interested in selling it.

“In a weird kind of way,” Warp said in 2020, “they’re probably gonna have less competition. It could be a good opportunity.”

Verellen originally thought Dusty’s would be a diner, but instead let the Craftsman house location — and the community it welcomed — dictate its own identity. She never let the idea go, though: “I’ve always harbored this secret desire to have a diner.”

THE PINE CONE - UNIVERSITY PLACE

▪ 7912 27th St. W., University Place, thepineconeup.com

▪ Soft Opening Hours: Tuesday-Sunday 8 a.m.-3 p.m.

▪ Details: retro diner updated with new owners, menu and cocktails; follow instagram.com/thepineconeup for updates

Reporter’s Note, 9/19/2022: This story has been updated to reflect soft-opening hours as of Sept. 6.

This story was originally published March 23, 2022 at 10:00 AM.