K&W Cafeteria

Have the urge to feel young again? Come to K&W Cafeteria! Not only will you feel revived and youthful upon entering, but you will get to dine amongst some of Salem’s finest senior citizens!
K&W is what the name suggests — a cafeteria. Everybody stands in line, grabs a tray and slides it on down the metal bars picking and choosing what looks good. They have everything from salads, jello molds, jello with fruit, meat loaf, liver, mac and cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, baked spaghetti (my favorite — its *really* good here), cooked apples, roast beef, copper pennies (marinated carrots), chocolate pie, coconut pie, pudding, lemon meringue… etc.
I really enjoy going here for breakfast, though — as opposed to lunch or dinner. K&W makes the best sausage gravy, biscuits and hash-​browns. They rival what my mom makes homemade — and thats hard to do! There is even a picture of me at about 2 years old sitting in a high chair with their sausage gravy all over my face (my mom had a thing for taking pictures of me in the most unflattering moments!).
If you haven’t caught on, most of the foods are on the softer side. Even the meats. Definitely no frills kind of place — its always clean, and the employees are usually pretty friendly. There’s a certain comfort level for me here since I was brought to K&W so many times while growing up. The sound of the other patrons banging their glasses and forks and plates into everything, the overwhelming smell of coffee, and the sea of wafting blue hair.
*Sigh* I’m a little homesick for the east coast.

So I’m visitting my parents and my Mom says that they would like to take me out to dinner at K&W. At first I thought she was kidding becasue we like t go out to eat and try new & interesting restaurants. The K&W is neither new nor, particularly interesting. Neverhteles, I agreed. My Mom confided into me that she likes the K&W because she feels young and thin. My mother is 62, not very tall and soft and wonderful. Compared to the average diner, my mother is indeed thin and young.
I walked down the line worried that between the baked spaghetti with orange squares melted on top and the fatty prime rib I would not find anything for dinner. Then, there they wre, fried chicken livers! I got a nice plate ful along with greens and ima beans!
My dinner was $ 6.60 and I felt like quite the young/​good looking guy!
It’s not Chez Panisse but it does not try to pretned to be.