Mom’s Place: Old fashioned comfort food
The search for the best breakfast continues.
I think my favorite meal of the day, whenever I’m away from home or when I feel like treating myself to an inexpensive but luxurious meal is breakfast. There are in Tampa a number of places that serve elegant brunches; Oystercatchers springs to mind. But that is for, on my budget, a very special occasion.
I had been urged by my granddaughter, Jessica, to have breakfast at Mom’s Place on North Dale Mabry Highway, in Tampa, a bit north of the Stadium. As an old guy with much experience in listening to women, I translated that to be a question, “How about taking me to breakfast, Gramps? I know a really great place.” So this morning, The Lovely Joan and I went with the kid to Mom’s.
First think I noticed is that this restaurant shares a parking lot with another named, “Pop ‘n Sons”. Upon entering Mom’s, my first question was about the juxtaposition of the two establishments. Was there a relationship, a story, there? The building that now houses Pop ‘n Sons used to be a Lums. (That chain has, except for one or two stragglers, has left the scene but in its prime had fantastic hot dogs steamed in beer and the best burgers in the Universe, the Ollieburger. I understand that there are still a few places in the country that retain the Ollieburger, one in the District of Columbia and one in upstate New York; recipes for the Ollie-spices abound on the Internet but, as I do so often, I have digressed.) The new people who bought the then empty restaurant space called it, Pop ‘n Sons. Later on, the restaurant next door, a Ranch House operation, went out of business and when it was purchased by new owners, they took advantage of their neighbor’s name and called it Mom’s Place.
The restaurant is a throw-back to the mom and pop diners of long, long ago. When we arrived at about 8:30 in the morning, the establishment was very busy, not quite filled to capacity but close. The wait staff is comprised of old-timers (and I mean that has a compliment), always busy, always cheerful and continuing to fill and re-fill coffee mugs with hot, well brewed beverage. The place is clean and well attended, the kitchen area is open and the cooking crew’s activities were non-stop.
Jessica ordered corned beef hash and eggs; the order came with a choice of two kinds of potatoes, hash brown and home fried, and pancakes. I tasted the hash and it was perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside and moist inside. The order was huge, as were each of the meals chosen. Joan ordered two eggs and bacon, grits and pancakes. Purely in the interests of research, I tasted the bacon; it was not greasy and truly delicious.
I had heard of Mom’s Virginia ham steak breakfast and was specifically warned by our waitress that the portion was very large. (She was wrong, it was enormous!) The steak covered an entire serving platter and a separate platter was filled with two eggs and hash browns. With this gargantuan serving was a choice of pancakes, toast or biscuits; I ordered toast which remained uneaten, along with most of the hash browns! The bone-in serving of Virginia ham was easily a half-inch thick and extremely lean. While it had the saltiness and smoked flavor of the ham steak I remember from the mid-Atlantic states, it was not so salty that I will be drinking water all day long.
All three of us got up from the table stuffed to the rafters. I cannot say about Jessica, but Joan and I have had lunch and probably dinner taken care of.
From decorations on the wall, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New York Yankees players frequent Mom’s Place. Hungry athletes would be well satisfied here. In addition to breakfast, Mom’s Place serves up familiar hearty comfort food, including stuff that I wouldn’t eat on a bet, such as liver omelets and liver steaks. On the other hand, one of our friends swears by the hamburgers as been extremely tasty and with enough juice to dribble down the arm, a sign of good stuff.
Next year, when I am hungry again, I intend to try one of the burgers (and perhaps, go next door and compare), but in the meantime, I’m going to take a nap while I digest.
