'Fresh' is the word at Top of the Line

They survived a year working feet apart from one another.

Recently, Lonnie and LaShay Germain surpassed the two-year mark operating a restaurant in a town in which it is difficult to do the food business, but also in a location that had been pegged as being somewhat jinxed.

The owners of the Top of the Line, located at 24 W. First St. in Cheney, pride themselves in providing something few others offer - a full array of fresh offerings from a menu that specializes in seafood and burgers.

When they arrived at the building they leased two years ago, the Germains were greeted with, "Nobody's made it at this location more than six months."

"That was encouraging," LaShay deadpanned.

The Germains were determined to prove naysayers wrong and recently started year-three in business in a location that briefly housed four prior eateries.

The couple tests their relationship by both working and living together. "We were stuck in a two-window drive through together," Lonnie said.

They once got in a big fight over the portion size of onion rings of all things, LaShay said. That blew over, and the couple, who has been married for two years, and together for five, decided they needed a bit more space from which to operate.

The Germains own a home in Blanchard, Idaho, but rent a place in Four Lakes to avoid a three-hour round trip to work.

Their move from Chattaroy, where they ran the Top of the Line Drive-Thru, was more a matter of there being the right space available. They looked at the former Loco Dogs downtown but determined it was too small for their needs and did not have adequate parking.

At the same time the former Cheney edition of Spokane's Perry Street Café became available.

So far it has proved to be the perfect fit for a business that has slowly grown from Lonnie's secret recipe homemade fish and chips that were developed in his hometown of Sequim, Wash.

Lonnie made the fish and chips for family events and began selling out of a mobile catering trailer. "He just did that for a few months because a guy really wanted to buy his trailer," LaShay said. "He built it all from scratch, it was real nice."

The "from-scratch" concept translated into the kitchen for Lonnie and LaShay.

"We try to do everything in-house," Lonnie said. "He makes our homemade seafood chowder, he makes our homemade regular chowder," LaShay added.

Burgers, all homemade from top-quality meat, complement the fish specialty. Now Top of the Line serves a pulled pork sandwich that is also one of Lonnie's special recipes. The meat is smoked out back by Lonnie, who has the designation of being a master smoker. The pulled pork is slow-cooked 14 hours.

Friday nights Top of the Line serves a smoked prime rib and if the right staff can be found Saturday's will begin to feature ribs.

"The prime rib is slow cooked at 225-degrees for four hours," Lonnie said. "It comes out as rare as you can get it and then our cooks take it from there, (and) cook it anyway you want it. It's different than most prime ribs you'll ever get."

Fresh is the word for virtually everything on the menu. They hand make the crab burger and add coleslaw and a special Dijon sauce. "That's different than the average slaw that goes on our fish tacos and our royal crab burger," Lonnie said. The fish tacos come with yet another special sauce that LaShay, a New Mexico native, makes.

All the dressings and sauces for the pulled pork are also made onsite. Their fish is Alaska cod and hand breaded.

The Germains would like to add other items, but are careful. "Cheney's kind of a hard market," Lonnie said. "When winter comes you suffer horribly and spend the rest of the year trying to get caught up."

Breakfast is offered Friday - Sunday. They tried breakfast seven days a week, but had to admit, "Zips has the corner on the market," Lonnie said.

Top of the Line is located at 24 W. First St. Business hours are Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 8 a.m. – 8 p.m. To contact Top of the Line call (509) 235-4559.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].