EDWARDSBURG — Cameron Horne isn’t fat and he’s not from the South, let alone New Orleans, though the 1993 Edwardsburg High School graduate sure does like to concoct Creole and Cajun dishes for Fat Cam’s at Garver Lake.

“Fat Cam” was Horne’s “gangster name” inspired by the HBO television series, “The Sopranos,” when he worked in the kitchen at Stacy’s Food and Spirits.

His wife, Kate, the public face of the restaurant, opened Aug. 7 in the former Garver Lake Bar they bought in May 2011 and gutted, is originally from Manistique in the Upper Peninsula. She attended Western Michigan University.

“As long as I’ve known Cameron, he’s wanted to have his own place,” she said Tuesday.

“He has it in his blood. He was looking online one day, and it was available. He went after it because he always said this was the perfect location, with Cass and Dowagiac to the north, Three Rivers to the east, Niles and St. Joseph to the west and everything south.”

Her husband’s “comfort food is on a level of no one else I know cooking. To me, comfort food was pot roast and potatoes, meatloaf and fried chicken. We wanted to be able to make it affordable and to have fresh food.

“We used to come in here and unwind,” Kate continued. “Cameron ran the Garver Lake Bar kitchen for a few months. Then he got out of it for a while and, for five years, did construction,” which helped with their renovation.

Varied menu

“Tummy Teasers” include bacon dip, crab fritters and pretzel poppers stuffed with cheddar cheese. Besides the po’ boy sub with fried shrimp, sandwiches include barbecue pulled turkey.
There are the Camburger, the Bacatarian (bacon dip and strips), the Shiner (blackened patty with bleu cheese) and the Fatty (cheeseburger topped with cheddar and bacon, layered between two grilled cheese sandwiches).

“The way everything’s turned out was worth the wait,” Kate said.

“We had a dinner party for our friends one fall, and Cameron decided to make gumbo, which he’d never made before. He’s tweaked it a little bit, but it’s the same recipe he uses now and everybody loved it. He made grits and all this other Southern stuff, so I urged him to concentrate on that. We’re blue collar, took what we had and ran with it. This represents everything that we’ve worked all our lives for.”

About Fat’s Cams
Where: 25020 May St.

Lunch: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday, and noon to 3 p.m. Sunday

Dinner: 4 to 10 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; and 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday

Call: (269) 414-4446

Cost: Dinners average $14, lunch $8, with daily and nightly features.

Drinks: There is bar dining, craft beers such as Abita, Founders, Shorts, Four Horsemen and Bells, a full bar, takeout and wines such as Tabor Hill, Domaine Berrien and Lemon Creek.

Go to: www.fatcamsatgarverlake.com