![]() ![]() Despite this, she transformed the once modest menu to include a laundry list of diner classics, particularly griddle standards. ![]() from Seoul as an adult, she’d never eaten many of the dishes she now serves, including pancakes and French toast. When Lehn took over, she took on multiple roles, from cooking and waitressing to busing and washing dishes. “I made a Korean dinner and asked if she would trust me with her restaurant.” “I invited Alice Smith to my house,” Lehn says. Despite having no prior restaurant experience and filing for personal bankruptcy around the same time, she bought the Cameo and the land it sits on with a $100,000 down payment pooled from her family. When Lehn saw a for-sale ad for the Cameo in the Oregonian, she decided to jump at the opportunity. In contrast to its Western counterpart, the Korean bindaetteok is made with a mung bean batter that holds a confetti of julienned vegetables. “But I’m a good cook - I thought, ‘Maybe I could do the hamburger business.’” “My husband said I’d be good in real estate, but between the language and different culture, I didn’t have any confidence,” says Lehn. ![]() But when Lehn took over the restaurant in 1992, she and the cafe experienced a second act. Lehn and many Portlanders know little else about its early years - much of its pre-Lehn history has been lost to time. The Cameo opened in 1969 as a utilitarian hamburger-and-milkshake spot. And now, its blend of Korean staples and diner standbys have become a quintessential part of Portland’s dining world, a recontextualized Americana true to Lehn and the city at large. The diner’s introduction of Korean dishes to its ’90s-era Portland menu made it a quiet trailblazer in the city’s restaurant scene. However, over time, Lehn imparted enough of her charm and creativity to the space to make it a truly iconic Portland restaurant. An immigrant from South Korea, she dabbled in various things, ranging from hosting trade shows to working as an interior designer. And before Cameo Cafe, Lehn was no restaurateur. Worn floral wallpaper and cottagecore decor give Cameo Cafe a homey feel.īefore Lehn took over, Cameo Cafe was not much more than a motel diner with a five-item menu. Snapshots of Lehn’s grandchildren are interspersed with tchotchkes throughout the dining room, and portraits of beaming beauty queens memorialize the 16 years Lehn served as a judge of the Miss Oregon pageant. A framed candid of Lehn’s daughter, Kimberly, sitting with former president Barack Obama at the White House, where she served as associate director for East Asia on the National Security Council, appears pride of place next to the counter that runs the length of the dining room. Traces of Lehn and her family are scattered across the diner. on purpose” and “The WiFi password is don’t call me sweetie.” Often, at the center of the dining room, owner Sue Gee Lehn can be found holding court, chatting with generations of regulars and dropping off bottles of house-made raspberry jam and hot sauce at the tables. ![]() On any given day, longtime waitress Katie Currier ferries plates piled with pancakes - bindaetteok or blueberry - from the open kitchen, sporting novelty shirts stamped with quips like “I forgot your ranch. In the dining room, the worn floral wallpaper and cottagecore decor give the space a homey feel and familiarity, with Portland-esque kitsch: Paper umbrellas and ornaments hang from the diner’s chandeliers, and a planter filled with faux greenery glows with Christmas lights. ![]()
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