Scratch-made since 2007 — breakfast & lunch Tue–Sat  ·  Italian(ish) Night Wednesdays  ·  (260) 229-9979
A sunny diner breakfast of biscuits and gravy with fruit and pickled cucumbers at Pickles Café
Breakfast · Lunch · Pie

Everything's scratch-made. Even the pickles.

A mother-and-daughter kitchen in downtown Columbia City, where 90% of the recipes came down through the family — biscuits and gravy, soups from grandma's recipe box, and a pie case that empties by afternoon.

📍 Find us 130 W Van Buren St, downtown Columbia City
🕗 Open Tue–Sat 8 AM–2 PM · Wed nights 5–8
📞 Call (260) 229-9979

Kim & Lorie's kitchen

Family recipes, for real

Pickles started in 2007 inside a late-1800s general store in tiny Dunfee — mismatched plates, mason-jar glasses, pie on a chalkboard. In 2020 it moved to the heart of Columbia City, and nothing else changed: Kim runs the kitchen with her mom Lorie, cooking the way their family always has.

  • About 90% of the recipes are family recipes, passed down generations
  • The potato soup? Grandma's recipe.
  • Desserts and pies made from scratch, whole pies to go
  • Named Pickles for reasons Kim keeps to herself — ask her!

Read the story

The cheerful interior of Pickles Café with vintage plates and mason jars

House favorites

What the regulars won't share

Breakfast till 11, lunch till 2, and a pie case that plays favorites with no one.

Biscuits and gravy with scrambled eggs

Biscuits & Gravy

Soft, fluffy biscuits, real sausage gravy — "definitely not premade" say the reviews.

A giant breakfast burrito cut in half

Big Mama's Burrito

The famous one. Come hungry, leave happy, maybe take half home.

Tomato basil soup with a pressed panini

Soups & Paninis

Tomato basil, grandma's potato soup, and paninis like the Cranberry Goat Cheese Ham.

The homemade pie case at Pickles Café

The Pie Case

Peanut butter, sugar cream, buttermilk, strawberry — plus apple dumplings.

The full menu

A candlelit plate of handmade pasta on Italian(ish) Night

Wednesdays, 5–8 PM

Italian(ish) Night

Every Wednesday evening the café reopens for a rotating dinner special that starts in Italy and wanders wherever Kim feels like going — pasta one week, shawarma or empanadas the next. That's the "(ish)."

  • One night a week, 5–8 PM
  • The week's special drops on Facebook
  • Scratch-made, like everything else

This week's special

Word around the square

Columbia City approves

Over a thousand public reviews across Google and Facebook, sitting around 4.6–4.9 stars. Quotes kept as written.

★★★★★

"The biscuits and gravy is amazing and definitely not premade warmed up food."

— Heather R., Google review
★★★★★

"Real sausage not the fake stuff and the biscuits were amazing, soft and fluffy."

— Google review
★★★★★

"We love this place so much we had our baby shower here! They were so kind and truly made us feel special."

— public review, May 2025