By BEAU GLYNN • Hermiston Herald

The H&P Cafe in Echo unveiled its new look recently, coupled with a letter of thanks on its Facebook page addressed to a loyal and generous community.

“I guess I ultimately wanted to share with the world what a great little community this is,” owner Michael Barzee said.

Barzee and his family have lived in Echo for the past 23 years and have owned the Cafe for seven-and-a-half years. Up until recently, the cafe remained unpainted, but now has a face-lift in the form of a nice coat of paint.

“When we bought the place, it was on our list of things to do; we wanted to paint it, to fix it up as we’d go along,” Barzee said.

Exterior painting is no cheap expense. But, the generous community of Echo made clear their support for the local restaurant.

“When they offered to paint the building for us, it was just a little bit overwhelming after the couple of years we’d had,” Barzee said.

The pandemic was a death-sentence for many small businesses across the country, with many more barely surviving the off-and-on shutdowns.

Barzee accompanied the announcement of the repaint to the Echo community with a story telling the journey of how he came to live in the town, and how he ultimately came into possession of the cafe.

“All I wanted to do was just thank the community,” he said, “for them to be wanting to do something like that for us was just incredibly generous,” Barzee continued.

In reference to the H&P Cafe, Barzee had a simple, nostalgic American vision for the restaurant.

“I think that parents should be able to give their kids $10 to come down to the cafe, get something to eat and drink, then come home with the change,” he said.

Barzee has been working in the food business since he was 16 and moved to Echo in 1999, then bought H&P Cafe in 2015.

“When we bought the cafe, we just wanted to do the ‘Mom & Pop thing’, to serve some good food to good folks,” he recalled.

Barzee attributed the cafe’s new look to simply the generosity of a loyal community of customers.

“All the generosity we’ve received from the people of Echo just proves that it’s an exceptional little community,” Barzee said.

H&P Cafe is at 231 W Main St. in Echo, open every day of the week, save for Wednesdays.