When Jennifer Goodenough and her family were presented with the opportunity to open a restaurant in North Clark County last year, they jumped at the opportunity to make their dreams become a reality.
The Yacolt area is not home to many restaurants, so when Fargher Lakehouse opened its doors in January 2016, the community took notice.
“Our family has lived in North Clark County for many years and we have always wanted a restaurant that had high quality service, as well as food and drinks,” Goodenough said. “Also, we wanted to be a restaurant that unites the community and provides a place for all North Clark County to gather and mingle. When the opportunity was presented to us, we thought this would be a great way to see that dream come to fruition.”
Today, Fargher Lakehouse has 32 employees on staff, and on any given night, you will find at least one, if not several, family members at the restaurant pitching in. This sense of family translates to how they serve customers, too. Since they’ve opened, the restaurant has built up a steady base of regulars in addition to others that want to get out of the city and take a scenic drive.
Goodenough shares that one of the reasons the restaurant has been a success so far is because they’re one of the only restaurants in the area north of Lewisville Park that offers a full-service restaurant and bar.
“This allows us to not only serve our community and the surrounding area, but to be a destination restaurant for those traveling to enjoy the beauty of North Clark County,” she said. “As a restaurant, we serve people wearing work boots to those wearing stilettos. It’s a comfortable place for anyone to gather. We have an amazing staff who desires to make every customer’s experience a positive one.”
Fargher Lakehouse aims to be in on the changing Clark County food scene by building a positive reputation for its unique menu that reminds people of down-to-earth home cooking.
“We try to build our menu with current flair but at the same time remind people of home,” Goodenough said. “A great example of this is our bacon-wrapped meatloaf, which people say is ‘not your mama’s meatloaf.’ It has been our best seller since we opened our doors.”
The menu is full of made-from-scratch items and many utilize local ingredients. The restaurant also partners regularly with several local farms that provide the restaurant with fresh vegetables to add to the menu. In the bar, they stock as many local breweries and distilleries as possible, and out of the 16 rotating beers on tap, 14 of them are from Oregon and Washington. Fargher Lakehouse also serves several Pacific Northwest vodkas and gins, including some from Battle Ground’s Double V Distillery.
The restaurant now serves breakfast on the weekends and they hope to build more awareness of that so they can expand the breakfast hours for weekdays, too.
“We hope that as word of our restaurant continues to spread, we’ll become a destination restaurant for those in all of Clark County,” Goodenough said.
Fargher Lakehouse is located at 15519 NE Fargher Lake Highway, in Yacolt.
