Joy Knudtson is as much of a Eugene institution as her restaurant. 

Joy Knudtson blends into her diner as she sits among customers at the low-top counter across from the entrance of Brail’s Restaurant on Willamette street. She sits still only long enough to eat a few bites from her plate before she is summoned by one of her employees. 

“Oma,” Forrest Rasmussen shouted the Korean word for mom in her direction, nodding toward a group of customers who had just entered. 

Knudtson leaps from her seat with a big smile causing her red mask to slip briefly from her nose and skates across the tile floor.  

“The big one in the corner is for you,” said Knudtson, while seamlessly grabbing menus and placing them in front of each customer. 

If Knudtson’s ecstatic greeting is preserved only for familiar faces and long-time customers, one would have to assume each and every person who enters the diner must be an old friend. 

She is instantly recognizable, not only by her thick-rimmed glasses and black hair, but how she whirls around her restaurant like a tornado. Refilling coffee mugs, delivering orders and checking on customers as they scarf down diner favorites like the hangover special, a hefty serving of biscuits and gravy, or two fried eggs and crispy hash browns that take up the entire half of an 8×8 square takeout container. 

Knudtson first started working at Brail’s almost 30 years ago when her sister owned it. 

“I was looking for a job to survive,” said Knudtson, who immigrated to the United States from Korea. 

Knudtson has worked at her restaurant nearly every day since taking over in 1999, even during the early months of the pandemic. 

“She sent everyone home, she was the only one here,” said Rassmussen, who has worked for Knudtson since he was 15 and is now a manager. 

Despite only making $100 in takeout orders one day in March 2020, Brail’s never closed. Knudtson said she lost money by staying open but eventually, $100 days turned into $500 days to $1000 and business started to pick up again.

“I never gave up,” said Knudtson. She also never laid anyone off, using money from the federal government’s Payment Protection Program to pay her employees to stay home.

Rassmussen, who has worked at Brails for 14 years, isn’t even the restaurant’s longest-serving employee. Frankie Gibson, who Knudtson said she stole from IHOP, has worked at Brails for 20 years. 

“I’m still training,” Gibson quips and Knudtson erupts with laughter. 

“People stay for the community,” said Rasmussen. “It’s a good place to be. It’s comfortable, it’s fun, it’s rewarding. It gets tough sometimes, but it’s extremely rewarding work.” 

Knudtson jokes that she alone does the work of four people, but her employees agree that whether it’s bussing a table or cracking an egg, there’s no job at Brail’s that Knudtson isn’t the best at.

“Joy taught me how to be a good worker and to have a good work ethic no matter what you’re doing, whether you’re washing dishes, cooking or waiting tables,” said Rassmussen.“She wants you to be the best you can be and there’s no room for anything else.”

Knudtson’s expectations of her employees exemplify why she prefers they call her Oma. But the title is not reserved just for her employees, it’s used by countless community members, University of Oregon students and alumni and even NFL quarterbacks.

“Marcus Mariota calls me Oma,” said Knudtson. It’s clear that she is proud of the home she’s built for her community.

At 65, Knudtson has finally decided to cut back on her 16-hour days at Brail’s. Over the last two years, she has taken up golfing, and said she’s slowly learning how to have fun outside of her restaurant. 

“People ask me what I did to have a successful business, I did nothing,” Knudtston said. “I just did the work, I had the senses and the personality to get close with people.” 

Still, each Saturday morning, Knudtston prefers to sit among her customers, chat with U of O football players and offer ibuprofen to the college-aged diners who can’t seem to keep their heads off the table. 

“When I come here, to Brail’s, it makes me happy,” said Knudtson. “This is a home for everyone.”