Recently I was entertaining guests from out of town, and their visit happened to coincide with the day of the week that I often eat out as The Mouth. Wanting them to enjoy their stay here at the coast and to get a sense of the local cuisine, I thought long and hard about which local eatery to try. I wanted somewhere that was cozy but upscale, charming but elegant, and with fresh, local ingredients prepared in tasty and artful combinations.

I decided to take my guests to lunch at the Pacific Way Bakery & Café in Gearhart, and it was exactly the kind of experience I was hoping for a restaurant that says Oregon coast.

My guests and I sampled a broad selection from the menu. I was immensely pleased with my choice of a light but filling grilled Thai chicken salad: a tenderloin of chicken marinated in a sweet Thai chili sauce over chilled Yakisoba noodles and topped with crispy wonton strips, roasted peanuts, water chestnuts, sesame seeds, cucumber, peas, bok choy, and sweet peppers. The sweet Thai chili sauce was the perfect mix of tart and sweet, and I wished for more of it; the soba noodles seemed a bit bland. The overall flavor profile though, with the chili sauce, cucumbers, peanuts and peas was brilliantly Thai, and it was a nice departure from a typical salad.

Another exotic meal at the table, a Greek gyro sandwich, was equally appealing with a terrific blend of flavors. Thin but succulent slices of slow-roasted beef were stuffed into soft Greek pita bread with a tangy tzatziki cucumber yogurt sauce, cabbage, onions, tomatoes and feta cheese. I marveled at how such a generous portion of beef could somehow taste so light and refreshing. The cucumber yogurt sauce was creamy, pleasantly spiced and bright.

Lovers of traditional sandwich fare will be charmed by the Pacific Ways take on a French dip: thinly sliced, slow-roasted beef with gorgonzola cheese, grilled to perfection in a panini press and served with fresh au jus. Ive made French dips at home many times, and in all these years I dont know why it never occurred to me to swap Swiss for gorgonzola. The salty assertiveness of the gorgonzola brought out the mellow sweetness of the beef, and the pleasing crunch of the bread straight from the panini press was a perfect marriage of flavors and textures.

A Reuben sandwich proved just as delectable as the French dip. I appreciate that Pacific Way uses thinly shaved pastrami for their version of the Reuben, which I much prefer to the chewy slab of meat often found in other versions of the sandwich. The Swiss cheese and sauerkraut were spot-on, and the sandwich had the same pleasing panini crunch. My only quibble with the dish was that the Russian dressing seemed a bit sweet and could have been tangier for my liking.

Each sandwich was served a choice of French fries, chips, fennel slaw or a small green salad. Whenever a restaurant has taken great care to ensure that their side dishes are as creative and delectable as the main course, I find it noteworthy; the fennel slaw was surprisingly delicious. I say surprisingly only because I am not particularly fond of fennel, but its light licorice flavor blended beautifully with the cabbage slaw, and a light sprinkling of celery seeds provided a bit of extra flavor and crunch.

When I saw our server bring dessert to another table, I decided I couldnt pass it up and indulged in a hot chocolate cake soufflé with vanilla ice cream. With a texture somewhere between cake and pudding, the dense dark chocolate cake dessert was the perfect capper to an incredible meal.

Pacific Way Bakery & Café is an exceptional eatery: a little something for everybody and a lot of great flavors.