By Gabriel Garcia, The Wenatchee World, Wash. The Tribune Content Agency
Mama D's Kitchen owner Corrin Dugger slices a club sandwich on homemade cheddar jalapeno focaccia bread Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center.
ROCKY REACH DAM - Inside Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center lies Mama D's Kitchen, where visitors and PUD employees can eat a meal while looking out to Rocky Reach Dam and the Columbia River.
Cafe hours are 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and Saturdays, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. In the spring, the cafe hours are extended to 4 p.m.
Menu items include breakfast burritos, sandwiches, plates, and avocado toast from $5 to $8. The lunch menu includes burgers, deli sandwiches, salads, and wraps from $5 to $9.
Co-owner Corinn Dugger said the menu is "basic," but the "quality and the quantity" customers pay for is "great" because all the items are less than $10.
"Our main goal is for a family to be able to come out and eat and not break the bank," Dugger said.
241109-biz-mamad-02.JPG
Mama D's Kitchen owner Corrin Dugger slices a club sandwich on homemade cheddar jalapeno focaccia bread Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center.
Occasionally, Mama D's will have special temporary items, like lasagna and gyros, Dugger said.
Chelan County PUD senior communications strategist, Rachel Hansen, said Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center has free admission, so Mama D's is free to enter, too.
241109-biz-mamad-03.JPG
Mama D's Kitchen owner Corrin Dugger plates a club sandwich on homemade cheddar jalapeno focaccia bread Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center.
Most of the food in the cafe is made from scratch, Dugger said. The bread, soup, salads, and many other items are made at the cafe. During the summer months, Dugger uses vegetables she grows from her own garden at her home in Cashmere.
Dugger and her husband, Charlie Dugger, took over the 827-square-foot cafe eight years ago from Charlie Dugger's mother, who opened Mama D's Kitchen the year prior.
241109-biz-mamad-04.JPG
Mama D's Kitchen menu features burgers, sandwiches, wraps, vegan and kid meals Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center. Mama D's Kitchen also features a different soup every day and a unique item once a week.
The official business name is Mama D's Kitchen, but the business is sometimes marketed as "Rocky Reach Cafe" as it's easily identifiable, Corinn Dugger said.
"So we are Mama D's Kitchen doing business at the Rocky Reach Cafe," Corinn Dugger said.
The Chelan County PUD, which owns Rocky Reach Dam, does not charge the Duggers rent and pays for the equipment they use, like the refrigerator, the oven, and the ice-making machine, Corinn Dugger said. She added the PUD is a great partner to work with.
241109-biz-mamad-05.JPG
Mama D's Kitchen's special board list includes chicken noodle soup with fresh baked cheddar jalapeno focaccia bread Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, at Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center. Mama D's Kitchen also features a different soup everyday and a unique item once a week.
"We don't have to pay rent or utilities so we like to pass that down to our customers and that is how we have kept our prices down as low as they are," Corinn Dugger said.
She said she always worked in the food industry, either in restaurants or grocery stores. She added she has a "passion for food" and that customer service is her "forte."
"I also grew up from the time that I could walk helping in the kitchen with my mom," Corinn Dugger said. "My mom is big into homemade everything. We used to can food and make bread, baked and cooked."
Corinn Dugger said her husband grew up the same way, with his family who always cooked homemade meals.
"Food is love in our families," Corinn Dugger said. "So that's just kind of a natural thing for us to want to feed people."
Corinn Dugger also said that the cafe is in an "awesome location."
241109-biz-mamad-06.JPG
Mama D's Kitchen is located in the Rocky Reach Dam Discovery Center.
Window views allow close-ups of Rocky Reach Dam, a stretch of the Columbia River, as well as an across-river scene of Douglas County.
Each season provides a different look of the valley, Corinn Dugger said. She added she catches herself staring out the window sometimes.
"In spring you see all of the lush green hills," Corinn Dugger said. "This time of the year you see all of the fall colors and it's gorgeous to watch the snow falling. So we're just super blessed for such a beautiful location."
The cafe also has a window view of the cliffs across the street from the discovery center, where Corinn Dugger said she has seen bighorn sheep hang out occasionally and even ram their horns together. She added the horn ramming is so loud she can hear it inside the cafe. Once she saw two bighorns butt each other and was afraid they would fall off the cliffs, but they didn't.
The location of the cafe is "awesome" and "unique," Corinn Dugger said. But it does bring a "unique set" of challenges.
"The challenges are that it is remote, and not a lot of people are willing to drive out here during the winter," Corinn Dugger said. "So it does get really quiet and slow sometimes."
The cafe relies "heavily" on tourism and PUD staff at the dam, Corrin Dugger said.
To sustain the business, Mama D's also provides catering services for parties and events, Corinn Dugger said. She said the cafe started catering corporate events at Rocky Reach Dam Park nearby, and then baby showers, weddings, and funerals. The cafe has catered parties of up to 300 people, Corrin Dugger said.
The menu for catering depends on the client and the kind of event, Corrin Dugger said. She added she works with the client to find the food needs of the event.
"We can go from basic to fancy," Corinn Dugger said. The food can include nachos, hot dogs, sandwiches, pasta, charcuterie boards, chicken, beef, salmon, and more, she added.
The remoteness has its benefits, as well, Corinn Dugger said. Because the business relies on tourism, she said she met people from all over the world. And, she and her husband have become close to many of the PUD employees she calls their "dam family."
"I think one of the main things for me is the relationship with our customers and with the PUD employees who work out here," Corinn Dugger. "We meet some really cool people and that's motivating enough right there to come to work every day when you get to be surrounded by good people and hear people's stories and trade laughs."
Before Charlie Dugger joined his wife to take over Mama D's from his mother, he was in construction. He said it took some time to adjust to the service industry, but he got through it.
"Working with my wife is surprisingly awesome," Charlie Dugger said. "It's like working with your best friend every day. We have a great time working together. We're always in competition on who makes the better sandwich or burger."