If ever an establishment put the “family” in family restaurant, Mitzel’s American Kitchen was it.

A Review reader this week recalled her move to Bainbridge 20 years ago, when it was the Poulsbo restaurant, not an island eatery, that was an unexpected Elysium at the end of a long, long drive.

“When we moved up here from California, it was a pretty grueling trip – ever travel 1,100 miles with a 13-month-old baby?” our correspondent wrote. “My mom was with us, and that both helped and hindered. Anyway, that last stretch from Olympia was brutal, with our daughter pretty much crying the entire time. The moving truck wouldn’t arrive for a couple of days and we had planned to spend the interval in the motel behind Mitzel’s. So we finally arrive, check in and of course are starving – it’s pretty late in the evening, about 8-9 p.m., I guess. And there was Mitzel’s.

“So in we go and order our daughter the turkey noodle soup – bliss. She finally shut up.”

Just one charming tale among countless others, no doubt, that the popular restaurant off Highway 305 at Poulsbo Village engendered over the years. Sadly, Mitzel’s was destroyed by flames early Tuesday, displacing 35 workers and depriving the North Kitsap and Bainbridge communities of a favorite gathering spot. It’s a real loss.

Certainly, Bainbridge Island is blessed with its share of fine, locally owned establishments, but who among us hasn’t snuck across the bridge to nosh at Mitzel’s now and again? There are certainly trendier kitchens around, but sometimes you’re just not interested in dining on Pan-Mediterranean, Neo-Sub-Saharan, Indo-Lithuanian, Afro-Asian or whatever this month’s hot polyglot of haute cuisine is. Sometimes you just want, you know, plain old food. And for those times, Mitzel’s was there for you.

The menu covered plenty of ground, from breakfast skillet fare to burgers and fries to prime rib and baked potatoes. You could get a pot roast or turkey dinner at pretty much all hours, topped off by a ginormous wedge of cream pie. And the portions… Suffice it to say that loosening the belt mid-meal was de rigeur.

The waitstaff was friendly to a fault, and the prices were more than fair. Even the decor was refreshingly short on pretense. No art gallery, Mitzel’s; the wallpaper and cheap prints were usually obscured by the handiwork of preschoolers who took up the crayon for coloring contests.

Company officials (Everett-based Mitzel’s is part of the Elmer’s chain, with four other locations between Oak Harbor and Kent) say it’s too soon to know whether they’ll rebuild, but we sincerely hope they bring the restaurant up from the ashes. Mitzel’s had a following like no other restaurant in the North Kitsap area. And if you don’t believe that, you never stood in line for Sunday brunch.

Here’s to Mitzel’s American Kitchen. Soon may you reopen, long may you serve – our families – once again.