Brower's Cafe

At first it might seem that writing a review for Brower's Cafe on Yelp is fairly pointless: very few people live in Barrow; they all know everything there is to know about Brower's Cafe (c'mon, where else they gonna go?); and I doubt many of them are regular users of Yelp.  All of this is true, but then I'm not just recommending you choose Brower's over the other 4 or 5 eateries in Barrow should you happen to wander through town on your way to an icy suicide by polar bear.  I'm recommending you go to Barrow if you ever get the chance, and while you're there, stuff yourself in this fine American diner.  

Don't get me wrong: the Alaskan omelet, gorged with reindeer sausage (I don't doubt that someone nearby felled this animal personally and recently) and fresh vegetables (flown in by 737-Combi) is a perfectly excellent omelet, but it's not life-changing enough to make a special trip up to the northernmost town in the Americas just to have it.  But if you are in Alaska for any reason and have a day to kill, you should catch one of the three flights a day to Barrow so you can check off this particular superlative and see a type of town in this country that few ever do.  I recommend doing it in later winter/early spring, so there's enough sunlight to cue your desire for breakfast (and see any roaming polar bears), but it's still a mind-bogglingly alien world of ice and snow everywhere you look.  You'll be impressed that people carve out a life up here.  

Don't be scared off by the "foyer" of Brower's Cafe, which, in contrast to the welcoming sign out front, makes you fear imminent disappearance.  Inside, it's as cozy a diner as I've ever visited on any road trip.  The server didn't exactly chat me up like some rotund southern woman at a mom & pop's -- in fact, I don't know that he spoke at all other than, "Drink?" -- but there's a TV that might be showing CNN to remind you the rest of the world still exists, and every booth has a glorious view of the frozen Chukchi Sea.  The coffee was decent, the omelet was tasty and more than filling, and the prices were not as bad as I feared based on reviews of other places.