Family restaurant reopens near Mount Rainier with pie, country-fried steak
The Highlander is back in business en route to Paradise at Mount Rainier National Park.
Kimberly and Shawn Crittenden have reopened the restaurant as a family-friendly destination just six miles west of the Nisqually entrance on Route 706. After a couple decades as The Highlander, from 2021-2024, it operated as a 21-and-up spot called The Trailhead Bar and Grill.
The Highlander now opens daily at 8 a.m. for breakfast (most dishes $11.99-$21.99), with omelets, hash, country-fried steak, a charbroiled pork chop, French toast and pancakes.
Turning to lunch and dinner, the kitchen currently closes around 8 p.m. but “will continue to have some food available as long as the bar is open,” the owners wrote in a Facebook post.
The menu leans on “classic comfort food,” explained Shawn Crittenden in a phone call this week, including steaks (a 12-ounce ribeye with two sides for $26.99) and nine specialty burgers (most $13.99-$20.99). He highlighted the Sasquatch burger featuring a custom patty of equal parts (25%) wagyu beef, bison, boar and venison with a housemade bacon jam. Other homemade touches include blackberry jam and buttermilk biscuits, freshly battered cod and hand-pounded country-fried steak.
Apps include slow-roasted-then-fried wings in various sauces, fried pickles and onion rings. Make any salad a wrap, from the classic chef or Cobb to a chicken-bacon-ranch and Caesar. Soups are also made in house: always chili, a rotating special, and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday a clam chowder.
Burgers and sandwiches — prime rib dip, cheesesteak, club, patty melt — are served with a side. That list includes a baked potato, mac and cheese, potato salad, BBQ beans, rice pilaf and fries.
A kids menu has several options under $10.
In addition to managing the administrative side of the business, Kimberly is the head baker, making pies (blackberry, an array of cream pies) and other treats from scratch. You can even take a whole pie back to the cabin ($25.99-$26.99).
‘It’s the Highlander. Always will be.’
The restaurant is something of a homecoming for the Morton-based couple, who met while living in Ashford and working at The Highlander in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Kimberly’s sister and her late mother also worked there around that time. Shawn and Kimberly fell in love, got married and moved to Morton; they opened Papa Bears Restaurant and Lounge about nine years ago.
On a midwinter visit to Ashford earlier this year, explained Shawn Crittenden, he noticed, “There was so much traffic for a January day. I sat in Elbe and just kind of watched for a bit.”
He figured there must be a specific event, but there wasn’t — just a lot of people, presumably enjoying winter activities on the mountain or a quick getaway in the forest. He asked around and learned there are reportedly a few hundred Airbnbs in the area with more on the way — “like what Packwood did a few years ago,” he said.
He also knew The Trailhead had closed at the end of last season.
Morgan Utt and Jenny Hannah (Hannah also runs Cruiser Cafe in Eatonville) took over the storied haunt in 2021, ending a two-year drought. The previous proprietors had purchased it in 2016 from longtime owner Patti Lee Andres, who had managed the restaurant since 1996, according to state records.
Crittenden reached out to the listing agent. When another sale fizzled, he recalled, the agent called back, and they were off to the races. They had hoped to reopen in line with the start of the summer season, but permitting took several months — much longer than he expected. They opened the doors Aug. 13.
“So far it’s been amazing support,” said Crittendecn this week.
They have split the space again to accommodate a bar and lounge on one side and an all-ages dining room on the other.
In addition to the personal sentimental value, Crittenden said they are optimistic about the region despite recent setbacks — notably the loss of access to Mowich Lake via the defunct Carbon River Bridge and the closure just this month of the White River Bridge between Buckley and Enumclaw, leading to the northeastern park entrance at Sunrise.
“Back when we worked here, it was just a bustling place,” he said of The Highlander. “These areas are gonna continue to grow.”
Traffic flow to the park has jumped dramatically in the past 20 years, according to National Park Service data. An estimated 2.49 million people visited Mount Rainier last year, down slightly from an all-time high of 2.52 million in 2023. Car traffic has likewise boomed: Until 2017, around 600,000 vehicles entered the park, but in recent years that number has neared or surpassed 1 million — and those stats don’t account for visitors enjoying Forest Service or other recreational lands not managed by NPS.
Along Route 706, other dining options include Paradise Village, Rainier BaseCamp Bar and Grill, Whittaker’s, Copper Creek and Wildberry.
The Highlander Family Restaurant & Bar
- 30319 Route 706, Ashford, 360-569-0633, facebook.com
- Daily 8 a.m.-close (8 p.m. kitchen, later for bar)
- Details: new owners for longtime family restaurant near Mount Rainier National Park; specials include homemade soups, pies plus house-breaded fish and country-fried steak, game burgers and more
This story was originally published August 26, 2025 at 9:54 AM.