Terryl Gavre as she appeared on local billboards in the 90s (By John Durant)
Restaurant, Marina
Strike a Pose: Restaurateur Terryl Gavre of Cafe 222 Reflects on Her Creative Road to Success
By Frank Sabatini Jr.
Not long after Terryl Gavre opened Cafe 222 in downtown’s Marina District in 1992 did her attractive, angular face begin appearing on billboards throughout San Diego. If it wasn’t for the round waffle tipped perfectly on the crown of her head—like a chic saucer hat from the 1940s—people might have assumed she was the new glamor model for Lancôme Paris.
Yet San Diegans and the national media soon began connecting the impressive image to a repertoire of original recipes served at her small restaurant, which she opened with her earnings from an ABC television movie project. Early challenges ensued, and for a while, Gavre lived in a tiny room behind the restaurant’s kitchen.
Today we find Cafe 22 firmly intact along with a history of solid branding and some notable folks who have dropped in for Gavne’s famous waffles—not to mention her other scratch-made fare served amid whimsical decor.
After chatting with this industrious Mission Hills resident, who previously owned a handful of other restaurants in San Diego, we are all in on Gavne’s homespun food and artsy vibe.
Downtown Condo Guys: You’ve been hooked into the local restaurant scene for a long time. What were some of the other places you previously owned?
Gavre: Well, Cafe 222 was my first-born in the early 90s. Then it was MARKET Restaurant + Bar in Del Mar; Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant in Bankers Hill; and Bake Sale Bakery and ACME Southern Kitchen, both in the East Village.
I closed Bake Sale and ACME some time ago because I was too early for the East Village. Then after Covid my landlord at Bankers Hill Bar + Grill didn’t want to renew the lease after 12 years, so I closed it, but I still have ownership of the one at the San Diego International Airport. I’ll be there until the new terminal opens in 2025.
Downtown Condo Guys: How did Cafe 222 come about? And what were you doing prior to opening it?
Gavre: I was in Los Angeles making an ABC Monday Night Movie titled This Wife for Hire starring Pam Dawber from the Mork and Mindy television show. She played me in the movie.
The producers had approached me and wanted to buy my story about when I ran a successful catering business in my early 20s in Seattle. They asked if I would help write the script. They had given me a cameo role, and I was there the whole time they made the movie. When it was over, I used the money and came down to San Diego to open Cafe 222 at Second and Island streets.
Downtown Condo Guys: What was your main culinary objective when opening Cafe 222?
Gavre: I wanted it to be a little neighborhood restaurant for all of the architects and artists who were living in downtown lofts. I considered them the Bohemians of San Diego. And it turned out that way. I was there from 7:00a to 10p. Half the time I sat and ate with them because I wasn’t very busy in the beginning. There was no convention center yet, and the Marriott had only one tower at the time. Downtown was not what it is now.
The restaurant today is still the same size—750 square feet and with a streetside patio. Sometimes we’ll do 400-500 breakfasts on the weekend. That’s pumping a lot of plates for a little space.
Downtown Condo Guys: Earliest challenges and hurdles?
Gavre: For the first two years, I lived among the No. 10 cans [of food inventory] in a 200-square-foot room behind the kitchen. On opening day, I had no money left in the bank and didn’t own a credit card, and I had run out of toast of all things. So I took $20 out of the restaurant cash drawer and ran up to Smart & Final to buy bread while everyone in the restaurant sat patiently waiting for me to get back. I arrived to thunderous applause.
Downtown Condo Guys: Tell us about the unique marketing approach you took for the business that included the iconic photo with the waffle on your head.
Gavre: You have to remember that I was still in my 20s, so I had actually made a sandwich board and walked around downtown advertising in it. When I would see a group of people coming toward the cafe, I would run past them, and then run into the kitchen to cook their breakfasts. It was very grassroots.
Then I got the idea to look into the costs for advertising on billboards. I decided that I would use all the profits from the cafe at that point and gamble on doing a billboard campaign. That’s when I had that photo taken with the waffle on my head. I couldn’t afford to hire a model, so I took the modeling job myself. (Chuckle)
Downtown Condo Guys: Was the photo professionally shot?
Gavre: Yes. I had made a deal with John Durant, a well-known photographer who was coming into the restaurant. I proposed that we would trade photos for breakfasts. We had a makeup artist as well. I had gotten the idea from an old postcard I saw of the Rockettes that had toasters and all kinds of crazy things on their heads. So I thought, ‘I should put a waffle on my head.’
Downtown Condo Guys: Do you still use the photo for marketing and promotions?
Gavre: We run it into the ground. It’s on coffee mugs, key chains, T-shirts, and on the label for our waffle mixes. The tourists love it. What is funny is that a group of girls in their 20s recently came in and asked if that was me in the photo. I said ‘yes,’ which they thought was so cool. I told them that I’m about their moms’ age and that there was no social media back then—to which they all gasped.
They say you have one brilliant idea in your life. Mine was this photo because of the national media outlets that have been drawn to it.
Downtown Condo Guys: What are some of those national publicity successes?
Gavre: I’ve been on the Food Network three times with Bobby Flay. Plus, Gourmet Magazine had published recipes from the restaurant, such as our famous pumpkin waffles. And my peanut butter banana-stuffed French toast has run in national newspapers including the Los Angeles Times.
Downtown Condo Guys: What are your biggest sellers at the cafe?
Gavre: It’s biscuits and gravy, corned beef hash with eggs, and the peanut butter and banana-stuffed French toast. They are all my recipes. We make everything from scratch– the pork gravy, soups, granola, etc. And in November and December, we do pumpkin bread French toast, which is very popular.
Downtown Condo Guys: Who are some big-name customers you’ve seen come in?
Gavre: One time Cindy Crawford came in, and we all had to walk by and look at how gorgeous she is. Congressman Scott Peters has been a regular since the beginning. The same goes for so many of the San Diego Padres players.
Downtown Condo Guys: Do you have any new restaurant projects in the pipeline?
Gavre: Right now, no because I’m concentrating on my hardcover cookbook, which will be published by the end of next year. But if the right thing came along I would jump on it. I feel I have one more in me—especially now that both of my kids are in college, I’m free again with more time.
Downtown Condo Guys: What advice would you give to anyone thinking of opening their own restaurant?
Gavre: Make sure you love hospitality and that you love people—and be ready to work hard every day.
