One of the things that you do not expect to hear as you are sitting with friends having a frosty beer after work is, "So has anyone eaten at Paul Miller Ford yet? I've heard it's really good."

What? Paul Miller Ford on New Circle Road? The car dealership with the great neon sign and slanted roof that was just begging me as a child to climb it? Where inside this landmark is it, and why is it? Really, I could not get my head around this strange idea of eating in the place where my dad had once bought an army-green Pinto station wagon, so I had to visit it for myself.

The Thunderbird Café, which is nestled into a corner close to the Service Center entrance, is what I imagine an office at Disneyland would look like. There are bright primary colors everywhere, walls of windows, retro comfortable chairs, and everything is perfectly placed and clean. It is a very airy open space, with glass walled offices to the side, where I suppose a lot of wheelin' and dealin' happens, and the eating area is an island surrounded by a bustle of activity.

The original idea for The Thunderbird Café was to create not only a customer and client friendly atmosphere but to furnish the 300 employees (on the 26 acres of Autoplex) a place to have nutritious and easily accessible food. Many people from outside the building, who probably work on the north side of town, have also turned out to enjoy the breakfast and lunch specials.

Breakfast is served from 7:30 to 9:30 and seems to be the typical (but delicious) fare for on-your-way-to-work sustenance: biscuits, sausage, bacon, and pastries to name a few. It's easy to get in and out quickly, which is a necessity for weekday breakfast service.

Lunch, on the other hand, is a menu consisting of large deli sandwiches and a changing daily hot special that you can call and find out about beforehand. The sandwiches are made from freshly sliced ham, turkey, or roast beef with American, Colby, or Swiss cheese, and then dressed. The consistent hot special is on Friday, which is a grilled ribeye or chicken breast, baked potato, salad, and a drink for $5.00. What a deal and zero a.p.r.

The actual work area of the kitchen is not a very big space and is in open view of the public. It's a busy kitchen and when I was there on a Saturday, the counters were covered in gorgeous chocolate-dipped strawberries because this is not only a café but, also, the hub of another business, DaRae & Friends Catering, Inc. Owner, DeRae Marcum, and co-owners, Donnie Johnson and Karen Covington, have created a menu that offer several choices for office breakfasts, lunches, afternoon/evening meetings, and food trays for any event.

The catering menu has many creative foods and old-standbys to serve many different types of tastes. The following are a few samples of what they offer:

"Just Another Manic Monday" is a breakfast menu that includes banana bisque with cinnamon croutons, brown sugar baked ham on biscuits, cheesy egg scramble, fried potatoes, and a variety of juices for $7.50 per person while the "Corporate Comfort" lunch selection offers southern fried chicken, grandmother's potato salad, country style green beans, buttermilk biscuits, and cherry cobbler for $8.50 per person.

DeRae & Friends have been catering for about ten years and knew the Millers from catering their events for them. When this space became open, they were thrilled to have the opportunity to work on a larger scale in such a great atmosphere.

It's odd to ask a friend to meet you at a car dealership for lunch but worth it to see the look of confusion on their face. It may seem like I've been making light of the café, but this is an interesting place for anyone to eat breakfast or lunch and could be the high-end one-stop shopping. I can hear the announcer now, "Come on in to Paul Miller Ford, buy an Explorer, fill the back with platters of tempting appetizers from The Thunderbird Café, and you're ready for tailgating for all of this season's games."

Paul Miller Ford, New Circle Road

The Thunderbird Café and DeRae & Friends Catering, 244-4248

Hours: Monday thru Saturday 7:30 to 2:30, Closed Sunday

Please email your culinary heads-ups to Karen at kworkman@aceweekly.com.