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destination for eaters because of Ecola Seafoods (named for nearby Ecola State Park). Ecola is total Roadfood—extremely casual and extremely local, a no-frills seafood market and restaurant where fresh is all. We love simply browsing the cases full of Dungeness crab, oysters, scallops, and flat fish that we seldom see back east. And for those who arrive with a good appetite, what fun it is to choose from a broad menu of “fish and chips,” the former part of the equation including Willapa Bay oysters, Oregon albacore tuna, razor clams, and troll-caught Chinook salmon, Pacific cod, halibut, jumbo prawns, and ocean scallops. Each is available as a lunch or dinner (bigger portion), and you can get the cod, halibut, salmon, or oysters fried up and put into a toasted, buttered bun with lettuce, tomato, and a couple of lemon wedges.

We feasted on a crab cocktail, which was a sweet pile of cool, pearly meat in a bowl along with zesty red cocktail sauce. And we liked the chowder, too: fine-textured, creamy but not heavy, its ocean savor highlighted by a fine jolt of pepper.

For picnickers, sandwiches and whole ready-to-eat dinners are available to go, as are all manner of cook-it-yourself fish.

Farmhouse Café

4175 US 101

503–815–1325

Tillamook, OR

BLD | $

Tillamook cheese is a hard Cheddar rich with a creamy essence that makes it just right for eating by the piece, especially with a crisp apple. It grates well into shreds that are dense but fluff up nicely, and is therefore our favorite way to top a plate of Cincinnati five-way chili. Depending on how long it is aged, its character varies from svelte (sixty days) to stout (fifteen months).

Tillamook is available around the country, but if you want to wallow in it, the place to go is the source, Tillamook, where the Tillamook County Creamery Association runs a store and the Farmhouse Café, in which the product is infinitely celebrated. On the store shelves are more cheese products than we ever have imagined could exist, all made from the local pride: loaves, baby loaves and junior baby loaves, white and yellow, sharp and mild, Jack and Pepper Jack, snack bars, dips, spreads, and curds.

While the menu at the Farmhouse Café is a little less cheesecentric (you can get a BLT or a grilled chicken sandwich), the cheeseburgers are excellent and there is a long list of sandwiches devised to celebrate the glory of Cheddar. We are especially fond of cheese, bacon, and tomato on toasty sourdough bread.

While it can get mobbed with noisy tourists and certainly is not the hidden-away treasure that many travelers crave to find along Oregon’s beautiful coast, this big roadside enterprise is nonetheless a fun place to stop if you are in need of ice cream, milk, cheese, smoked meats, or a quick education in regional industry.

Fresh Seafood NW

3800 Hwy. 101 N

503–815–3500

Tillamook, OR

L | $

The name of this restaurant is accurate. “My parents are my wholesalers,” said cook and proprietor Kari McGrath. “We get everything off the boats in Garibaldi.” That means steamers, mussels, and prawns, local oysters, and Dungeness crab. It is all available raw to take home and cook, but late in 2006 Kari finally heeded pleas from travelers to offer something to eat right here.

There’s nothing fancy, mind you. Virtually everything on the menu is an ode to what local waters yield, with a happy nod to the excellent cheese made here in Tillamook. The best way to combine those two elements is in a grilled cheese sandwich that also contains bay shrimp and/or Dungeness crab. The combination of sweet marine meat and creamy, slightly sharp cheese is inspired, especially when the bread is buttery and toasted to a golden crisp. Kari also sells whole crabs for do-it-yourselfers as well as picked crabmeat for those who need immediate gratification.

We’ve also sampled her crab cakes, which have a good creamy texture but are a letdown after a cocktail of nothing but pure, cool crabmeat. That great crabmeat is also available as an addition to a green salad or a wonderful roasted garlic Caesar salad,