The building looks made over, an interesting structure suggesting a past. Rose Donuts also has a past. Owner Lynn Kuo will tell you she grew up in the doughnut business in Southern California. There her parents owned the first of what would become a chain of a dozen Rose Donut shops.

In 1978, the family emigrated from Cambodia, arriving into the welcoming arms of an uncle who helped them get started in the doughnut business. The parents knew little English, but doughnuts didn't require a lot, Kuo recalls. What the shop did provide was a secure foundation for their six children, all of them helping in the stores. Kuo was the eldest.

From the time she was 8, she recalls puttering in the store and serving as her parents' communication link to the outside world. At 16, she was running the store, then helped open another and another. Meanwhile, the uncle—Ted Mgoy—who had started working in 1975 at a Winchell's Doughnut shop, prospered and began his own chain of Christy's Donuts. It grew to 50 outlets and gave him the means to establish more newly immigrated relatives and friends in the doughnut business. They in turn helped others. If anyone should notice that doughnut shops always seem to be owned by Cambodians, Uncle Ted was the reason, Kuo says with a smile.

The shop Kuo started in 1998 on Saratoga Avenue is the only Rose Donut outlet in Northern California.

Kuo, 38, is the first to turn the shop into something more than just doughnuts. "We serve so much variety," she says. "It's California food—a mixture of cultures—some of it ethnic with a twist. I've created a menu for all ages, like the salads for ladies."

The 10 salads are beautiful displays of greens and color on 14-inch platters. "I wanted them to be big and interesting." And so they are. A Mexican Caesar with chicken has sunflower seeds, pesto, tortilla chips and a cilantro surprise. The Thai chicken salad is drizzled with peanut butter vinaigrette, and the steak fajita salad is topped with strips of tri tip, London broil or flank steak. All are $5.99 and include a baked roll.

For the youngsters who stream in from Prospect and Saratoga high schools, there are six kinds of hamburgers, melts and fries for lunch as well as the popular breakfast burritos. Espresso and 50 varieties of doughnuts baked on the premises fresh each morning appeal to the commuting crowd. Hard hats chow down on steak sandwiches with mushrooms, onions and bell peppers ($4.99) and roast beef with cheddar and Jack cheese ($4.49). There are even pasta dishes, wraps and bagels. Breakfast is served all day. A steak and egg hash made with nine ounces of filet steak, two eggs and country fries, with a choice of toast, runs $7.49.

"This is the only thing I know, and I enjoy it so," Kuo says with conviction. She is in the restaurant every day at lunch and on weekends when husband Kenny pitches in to help.

The crowds know about Rose through word-of-mouth, knowing that doughnuts are only part of the fare. "The sign Rose Donuts limits us with passersby," Kuo says. "So we're changing our name to Rose Café.

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet," William Shakespeare said. The sign is being painted now.

Rose Café, 1818 Saratoga Ave. in San Jose, is open for breakfast and lunch Monday through Saturday, 4 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday 4 a.m.-3 p.m. Call 408.379.3299.