Gratitude overflows as West Bremerton's funky and fun Hi-Lo's Cafe calls it quits

The cook wearing a multicolored kitchen skull cap stepped out onto the corner at 15th Street and Wycoff, straightened the apron around his neck, popped the kazoo to one side of his mouth like a cigar and swung a wand through the air, a waterfall of bubbles cascading across the sidewalk.

"We've 86'd the benny!" he shouted, followed by a quick kazoo flourish that drew laughs and then good-natured groans. It was only 9:30 a.m., and some of us were still standing among the four dozen or so people who'd lined up before 8 a.m. outside Hi-Lo's 15th Street Cafe on Saturday morning, part of the grateful crowds gathered to send off the West Bremerton institution on its last weekend in business. The eggs benedict had sold out, and it wouldn't be the last item added to that list in the next hour.

"I'm just sad the 86s are starting," a voice in a shady spot near the front of the line could be heard saying, a bittersweet statement that may have rounded up how many patrons felt as they packed the place through weekends in August, knowing the last moon biscuits, grateful bowls and Hi-Lo standards with a side of spam were being served by the diner that started with a few tables, two employees and a simple dream, and grew over 17 years to be beloved by its community.

Savoring the moment, in addition to the food, were Gaelen and Stephanie McCrary. The Bremerton residents had the distinction of being first in line when the doors opened for the next-to-last day at the Hi-Lo. The McCrarys, both wearing the distinct black-and-blue Hi-Lo's t-shirts that have been sold to regulars and tourists for years, paid their respects by arriving every weekend after owners Heidi and Lowell Yoxsimer announced that it was time to move on.

"It's the best breakfast food in Bremerton," Gaelen McCracy said, before Heidi Yoxsimer opened the order window at 8, greeted them both as old friends, took breakfast orders and welcomed the couple inside the eclectic kitchen and dining room. "Hands down it's the best, the atmosphere and the people."

A moment later, just around the corner from the order window, Brandon and Jenny Kindschy, with 5-year-old daughter Iris in tow, were welcomed into the Volkswagon bus that has been parked, permanently, on Hi-Lo's west side since 2009. The Kindschys, West Bremerton residents with an affinity for the restaurant strong enough that they rented the place out for their wedding reception in 2014, were giving Iris her first -- and last -- taste of their favorite spot.

"It's just a unique and special place that isn't replicated anywhere else," Brandon Kindschy said before his family climbed in as the first group to use the bus that morning. "Because of that we keep coming back."

Those sentiments flowed over the closing weekend just like the Café Feminino dark roast has since Hi-Lo's opened in 2006. It was the idea of a couple who was new to Bremerton, having driven their VW bus here to purchase a home not far from where their home-away-from-home would soon be located. Heidi and Lowell already had years in the restaurant business, and a dream to open a small place where, in their own words, "cooking, coffee and conversation" could be found. And they were taken by a low-slung stucco building in a neighborhood that would welcome them into its embrace.

"It was six tables, I would wait and he'd be the cook," Heidi Yoxsimer said, recalling the plan when Hi-Lo's opened on Feb. 15, 2006. "We thought it would be pretty mellow."

"They took it and ran with it," Lowell Yoxsimer quickly added, referring to the community of supporters who quickly led the Hi-Lo to outgrow the initial concept. "And ran in a really good direction."

The direction led to an estimated 220 employees over the years, distinctive decor like Lowell's Thermos collection that lines the walls, the grab-yer-own rack of random coffee mugs diners use, the "Yoda room" that was added as a post-pandemic expansion, and the ever-changing list of special daily scrambles, some named for normal folks around town with a favorite dish ("Guitar John" was the original, a bacon-mushroom-peppers concoction brought back for the weekend finale). And of course the VW bus that, after it conked out as the Yoxsimer's "daily driver" in about 2009, was retrofitted as a one-table private dining area, then affixed along Wycoff Avenue, adding another to the deluge of little details that diners in Bremerton and beyond fell in love with.

And then there are the kazoos. It was initially a lark for kids and grown kids celebrating birthdays. If Heidi found out you were celebrating, she'd run to her backpack and grab one, and play "Happy Birthday." And then...

"At a certain point I decided that every time I dropped a check I'd bring the candy, and play a song that matched," Heidi said, alluding to another one-of-a-kind quirk, the vintage metal lunchboxes full of hard candy that diners ended every meal picking from. If you got the Beatles lunchbox, you heard "Yellow Submarine," or the Kermit the Frog candy box meant "The Muppets" theme. Once regulars got comfortable, they started making requests of the perpetually energetic and sunny shop owner.

"It just became a thing," Heidi said. "I don't know. Now I'm the kazoo lady."

The kazoo lady and her co-workers on the wait staff and in the kitchen were lauded through their final month, with regulars delivering bouquets of flowers, personal cards, and bags of hard candy. Joshua Sinnott arrived early Saturday with his friend Rodney Hughes, carrying a box wrapped in "Happy Birthday" paper. It wasn't anyone's birthday, of course, but that was the only wrapping paper Sinnott had on hand to use. It felt like a very Hi-Lo thing to do. He had brought Heidi and Lowell a puzzle of a Volkswagon bus.

Sinnott and Hughes have been coming to the diner regularly for several years, and Hughes held two take-out boxes as he walked out. "My Last Special, 8/26/23" was written on the top. Hughes almost always orders the special, and it's always enough to take some home for later.

"What?! What?! The outrage!" Hughes joked, describing his reaction when he saw the Yoxsimers' post about their future plans. He smiled. "But 17 years... we've got to yield to that logic."

Lowell and Heidi aren't going anywhere. The city has embraced them, they said after closing up on Saturday, and they are grateful. To the regulars, the visitors, very much to their staff.

"Absolutely no way we could have done this ourselves," Heidi said.

But their future plans are undecided, other than to take a break from 35 years in the restaurant industry and get more deeply engaged with the Bremerton community, which both admit they haven't had enough time to do outside of serving breakfasts and lunches. On Sept. 23 they'll host the Hi-Lo Mahalo, Hawaiian for goodbye, planned as a block party for friends and supporters like the community gatherings the Yoxsimers have thrown in the past at the intersection they've defined through the years. Look for details on Facebook.

Oh, and there's the bus. The idled VW will be towed to Heidi and Lowell's home, the same house they moved here in 2000 to purchase. It'll be cleaned up, maybe a little renovation work as well, and placed in their backyard with a table still there to eat at. Friends will be welcome, they said.

"It's their happy place," Heidi said when asked what Hi-Lo's 15th Street Cafe has meant to its community. And now, she and Lowell get the satisfaction of sitting and enjoying their breakfast, at their own pace and in their own place, no doubt happily as well.

This article originally appeared on Kitsap Sun: Bremerton community bids farewell to Hi-Lo's 15th Street Cafe