Still Cookin’

After 11 years in business, Sue Gaukin’s Corned Beef Café continues to draw throngs of dedicated diners—without raising prices.

By: Beth Newcomb
Date: 07/21/2010
Look across the Northeast Ohio restaurant landscape and chances are good that many of your favorite eateries have either changed ownership, or, worse yet, closed their doors forever.

But one Broadview Heights’ mainstay continues to survive, and even thrive, no matter what the economic climate.

Sue Gaukin’s Corned Beef Café has, over the last 11 years, become a casual dining institution. And it’s without hesitation that this laid back owner unabashedly lays claim to the title of one of the area’s best breakfast and lunch destinations.

“We’re a great place to dine and we still have the same affordable prices,” Sue smiles. “Everything we do is homemade and of the highest quality. I won’t, for example, buy bologna for 99-cents a pound instead of
$2.69 a pound just to save a few cents per serving. It’s just not worth it. Why give my customers a lesser quality?”

It’s a philosophy that serves her well.

The Corned Beef Café sells about 300 pounds of corned beef every week. “There is a difference when it comes to corned beef. I don’t want to taste pickling spices in mine. A lot of places feel the need to doctor their meat up but we let our product stand on its own,” Sue says, wrinkling her nose at the notion of augmenting her phenomenally popular six-inch stacked sandwich.

On the weekend, Sue will crack about 1,000 eggs for her homemade breakfasts. Even the omelets are made with cracked eggs—instead of the poured stuff—and she separates the yolks for the egg white omelets herself.

The most popular breakfast item, she says, is the Café Breakfast—three eggs, home fries, your choice of meat, toast and jelly, all made to order, for just $3.95.

Sue does most of the cooking in the café’s open kitchen and whips up crowd pleasers like homemade potato salad with crisp celery and onions, creamy mayonnaise, and a blend of special seasonings that she refuses to divulge.

She also makes some of the best soup in the state, with her Reuben soup on the menu every day and chicken soup available on Wednesdays, something Sue describes as a cult classic.

“People just like my cooking,” she says simply when asked how her Corned Beef Café, with its no-frills décor and straightforward menu, regularly plays to a packed house.

There is a casualness infused in the atmosphere of the restaurant and the attitudes of the staff members. Stop in for a simple cup of coffee and you’re treated with as much deference as if you were ordering one of everything off a menu that boasts a wide variety of choices—all priced under $10.

Sue says she hasn’t raised prices in years because she’d rather be busy than raise prices.

“We bake our own turkey and roast beef, and our corned beef is cooked daily,” she says. “I boil my own chickens and roast my own beef bones for the soups. We pay a lot of attention to the details.”

Weekdays start for Sue and her team at 7 a.m. Regulars are often waiting outside for her to open the doors. Some phone their breakfast sandwich orders in in advance so they can swing by and grab them to go. Breakfast is one of the most popular menu choices and it can be ordered any time of the day. Everything is available to go.

Surprisingly, a number of area residents are still unaware that this neighborhood treasure is right in their own backyards.

“We get people in all of the time that tell us they didn’t realize we were here,” she says with a touch of irony. “But once they find us, they quickly realize that we’re the neighborhood place to eat. And they always come back.”

The Corned Beef Café is located at 9296 Broadview Road, just south of the Broadview Road and Route 82 corners. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m.-2 p.m., and Sunday, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. The phone number is 440-526-3856 and the website is www.CornedBeefCafe.net.

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