HIGHLAND VALLEY SUMMIT - It's not your parents' Hilltop.

An Idaho 21 icon since 1956, the Hilltop Cafe reopened July 4 after being closed for almost six years. A local landmark overlooking Highland Valley and the back waters of Lucky Peak Reservoir, the Hilltop was known to generations as a handy place to stop for gas and road food with a view.

The view is about the only thing the old and new Hilltop have in common. The gas pumps are gone, the building has been renovated, and the cooks take road food to a new level. Even the name has changed.

The cafe is now the Kodiak Grill. Next door is the Country Store, a sort of upscale convenience store where you can buy a Zeppole brown-bag lunch or a bottle of merlot. Together, the businesses comprise Donn's Hilltop, named for late co-owner Donn Clor.

The new Hilltop is getting good reviews even from old Hilltop regulars.

"We heard it was open again so we came up on a Sunday and liked it so much I brought friends back for my birthday," Boisean Ruth Walker said over a platter-sized ice cream sundae. "The food is wonderful, and they did a great job on the building. It's better than the old Hilltop ever was."

The old Hilltop was in such bad shape after being vacant for years that it was all but falling down. Owner Danarae Clor wanted to knock it down and start over but couldn't because it was an iconic building on a state highway. The result was a roof-to-foundation makeover with a wood and stone interior that might be described as upscale rustic.

Paul Cooper, who went to the old Hilltop several times a month with his father, said over lunch that he'd "been checking to see if it was open, and it was worth the wait. It's beautiful inside, and the food is excellent."

Kitchen manager Edward Speyer describes the fare as "blue-plate comfort food with big portions. We like to mix it up, from barbecue burgers, steak and prime rib to a seafood sampler plate. In the winter we'll have one or two different soups every day. We want something for everyone."

Sandwiches cover the spectrum from portobello mushroom burgers to turkey-bacon-avocado. You can order dinner entrees from Red Hook fish and chips ($11.95) to a 16-ounce prime rib ($22.95). Sundaes, cobblers and other desserts are big enough to share.

No one is more surprised by the Hilltop's transformation, and her role in it, than its owner.

"I never thought this was what I'd land on," Clor said. "I like to cook, but I never wanted a restaurant. It's funny, though. Now that I have it, I love it."

Formerly a real estate agent, investor and property manager like her husband, she and he bought the Hilltop in 2005 with the intention of renovating it and leasing it to a family that wanted to open a smokehouse. Donn Clor was passionate about rescuing the landmark.

Everything changed on May 2, 2007, when he died of a heart attack at 45. The family that had planned to run the smokehouse had second thoughts, and in January Danarae Clor decided to open a restaurant herself - in part as a tribute to her late husband. The Kodiak Grill is named for Kodiak, Alaska, where he loved to fish.

"He felt bad that this building with so many memories for so many people was practically falling down," she said. "It was in his heart that we save it and keep it a restaurant. He wanted to keep its traditions alive. He was up here working on it day and night."

With help from contractor friend Jim O'Donnell and the owners of the Tavern at Bown Crossing, she built the Kodiak Grill and got a crash course in the restaurant business.

So far, it seems to be working out. Business is good, and the store and restaurant are providing jobs for more than a dozen family members and friends of the family. Speyer, Clor's cousin, moved all the way from Hawaii to manage the kitchen.

"People are happy the place is finally open again," she said. "We're getting generations of customers - elderly people with grandchildren, families with kids. They come in and say they used to sled down the hill across the road. Donn would have loved that."

Tim Woodward: 377-6409