Airport Cafe Takes Off Very Quickly : Camarillo: New eatery has established itself as social hub. Pilots and aviation enthusiasts enjoy food and camaraderie.

Tucked on the edge of the Camarillo Airport is a new refuge for pilots and flying enthusiasts--a place to gather for chats about airplanes of all kinds and the passion for flight.

The Way-Point Cafe has been open only a few weeks. But, already, it has established itself as a social hub at the dusty Camarillo airstrip that once was an Air Force base.

Named after a pilot’s navigational aid, the Way-Point is the kind of place that serves basic hot food--fast and with a smile.

But beyond the no-nonsense American-style fare, owners Kathy and Mike Mills say they have been taken aback by the near instant popularity of the little cafe.

“We knew we were the only restaurant on the airport but we had no idea that folks would take to us so quickly,” Mike Mills said. “Frankly, we’ve been happily overwhelmed.”

Open from early morning to midafternoon every day, the restaurant has become the place at the airport where pilots hang out, slurp hot, fresh coffee, eat fresh-baked pies and muffins and recount their most glorified experiences in the cockpit.

The couple said they chose early on not to decorate the place--instead urging pilots, friends and others to bring in their glossy, framed photos of airplanes to line the walls.

Even after closing time--3 p.m.--and long after the restaurant’s short-order grill has grown cold, Mike Mills says that he keeps the coffee pot on and the front doors unlocked in case stragglers need a late afternoon pick-me-up.

“We wanted to create a gathering place,” said Mike Mills, a private pilot. “Nobody will ever get kicked off a table here. If they want to sit and drink coffee all day, that’s fine with us. We want it to be our customers’ place.”

Mike and Kathy Mills, both 47 and residents of La Crescenta, said they became restaurant owners because of hunger and happenstance.

“One weekend Mike and I were out flying and we decided to land at Camarillo and get some lunch,” Kathy Mills said. “When we got down, we radioed the tower and they directed us to some vending machines. I guess that’s when you could say the light bulbs in our heads blinked on.”

The cafe opened its doors early last month as the first restaurant at the airport since the closure of a Mexican restaurant in the same spot five years ago, according to Nona Makinson, the airport’s operations manager.

“When we first heard (they) were interested, we all got very excited,” Makinson said. “It’s a great little place.”

Since securing a five-year lease from the county last September, the couple have nearly doubled the size of the restaurant--expanding it to accommodate about 70 people.

The restaurant has large picture windows facing the runway, and plans call for the completion later this spring of an outdoor patio for those patrons wishing to eat their meals even closer to the flight line.

Steve Barber, wing leader of the Confederate Air Force’s Southern California chapter which operates out of Camarillo Airport, said the cafe was exactly what the facility needed. The Confederate Air Force is a nonprofit organization that preserves and flies World War II-era aircraft.

“It’s been my experience that airport cafes take on a life of their own and this one seems headed in that direction,” Barber said. “They kind of become a social core for the place--when you’re not flying or working on your bird, a place like that is where many pilots will typically hang out.”

Likewise, Bill Melly, a 71-year-old Camarillo pilot, says the restaurant is important because it gives local pilots a comfortable place to talk about aviation.

“You have to remember that flying is not a terribly forgiving activity. You have to be able to do it right the first time and all times,” Melly said. “A place like Mike and Kathy’s gives us the chance to discuss safety, procedures, weather. . .it gives us a place where we can exchange views.”

The eatery also attracts customers who are not pilots, such as Everett Ellerman of Camarillo. Nearly every Saturday, the 56-year-old investment executive and his wife, Julie, station themselves at the breakfast counter and soak up the atmosphere.

“The feel you get is like one of those Charles Kuralt Sunday Morning segments. You know the kind where Kuralt is just shooting the breeze with someone at a roadside diner in the middle of nowhere,” Ellerman said.

“At the Way-Point, instead of the patrons getting out of trucks and automobiles, here they get out of Pipers, Cessnas and Lears.”

For Julie Ellerman, 52, the Way-Point has become a home away from home. Her rhyming poetry is prominently on display next to the cash register.

“We’re not pilots, but yet from the first day we stepped into the place we were comfortable,” she said.

“This a place that’s new that wants to be old. It has a great feel to it.”

For Ed Beakley, 47, a retired naval pilot and a Camarillo resident, the restaurant with its aviation accouterments is a place where he makes regular stops during his workweek.

“If you’re an airplane person like I am, you’ll love this place,” said Beakley, who is now a civilian flight-test scientist. “It’s got a great atmosphere and real good food.”

Getting the new cafe off the ground has been a struggle for the couple, but it has been eased by the encouragement of the pilots and office workers who have become customers.

“I was up on the roof working on a screen and before I knew, one of our customers was up there volunteering some help,” Mike Mills said. “You don’t find that kind of friendliness just everywhere.”

One thing that has helped has been Kathy Mills’ experience in the restaurant business--she says her family has run a small eatery and newsstand at Union Station in Los Angeles for years.

“Our food is pretty basic, but we make a lot of it ourselves,” Kathy Mills said. “I think people like it when they find a place that gives a home-cooked feel.”