Willalby’s. The name of the diner we were trying to remember yesterday is Willalby’s Cafe.

Sandwiched in between a tattoo parlor and a Vietnamese restaurant, it’s easy to overlook, as we’d done for so many years. Yesterday while we were looking for a place to eat breakfast, though, we remember and made a beeline straight for it so we wouldn’t have to keep saying, “We really ought to go there one day.”

The place is smallish, maybe four or five booths along one side of the room and a counter with ten stools at the most. One guy seemed to be running the whole show, and he was in the back washing dishes when we came in, so we grabbed a seat in a booth and waited five or ten minutes for him to finish up before we could give him our order.

While we waited, a boom box played some kind of music that sounded like half a dozen guys playing their guitars by giving them a sound thrashing with lawn rakes. They sang, if we use the word very broadly, by screaming a pretty good impersonation of the Cookie Monster. It reminded me of the howling destruction going on during the scene at the Do Long bridge in the movie Apocalypse Now.

When the song was over, the guy came out of the back room, put in a new disk, and the mellow sounds of someone like Nora Ephron began to fill the air.

“Eclectic music selection,” I remarked to B.

We each ordered the French toast special. When we told him what we wanted, he answered, “Cool.” He said “cool” in answer to everything, instead of “okay.” It was perfect for a cafe like Willalby’s on a street like Williamson.

He was quick in the kitchen. We were enjoying our food in just a few minutes, and he kept our coffee mugs filled all the time we were eating. A few regulars came in after us and the place settled into a quiet buzz of conversation. One couple came in after they got tired of waiting in line at Lazy Jane’s, waited about three minutes for the guy to take their order and, when he didn’t show up quick enough for them, they got up and left. They were probably the same people who tailgated me through DeForest on the way to the auction this morning.