Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The demise of the small town restaurant

I hate eating at the chain restaurants. Nothing against Perkins, Denny's and the like, I just like the hometown feel of a little greasy spoon joints that serve a good cup of coffee and a good breakfast. Man, these places are getting hard to find any more. I don't usually pass up an opportunity to hit these joints when we're passing through. On our way to Brookings a couple weeks ago, we ate dinner in a little cafe out in the middle of nowhere in Minnesota. We were obviously the only non locals in there. Also the only obvious non-farmers too. If you really want to get a feel for a community, go to their local restaurant. Good food, huge servings, and no one complains if you go grab the coffee pot to fill up your cup, or your neighbor's.

On the flip side, we have NO chain restaurants around here sans the McDonalds/Burger King.

No Perkins, Denny's, IHop etc etc. So many places for breakfast.

small town diners are among my favorite places to eat and, thankfully, Oklahoma still has a lot of small towns.

All the little river towns going North from St. Louis have awesome small cafe and small restaurants. Food is plain, fresh and served piping hot.

The properly managed small mom & pop operations have plenty of business around here.

I will say, whilst I like breakfast at most of them, lunch gets pretty old.

10 restaurants and they ALL serve the same exact things. I think there is a fear that offering something different may lead to dancing.

Speaking of Missouri, when I spent some time down that way back in the late 80s, I use to love to go to a Restaurant in Washington MO... think the name was Cowens IIRC...

place had like a zillion types of pies available almost daily.... written on black boards along the upper walls, all over the restaurant...don't know how they did it...

place was definitely worth the trip...

http://cowansrestaurant.com/homemade-pies/


Apple
Apple Crumb
Apple Raisin
Cherry
Cherry Crumb
Peach
Peach Crumb
Peach Blackberry
Peach Blackberry Crumb
Blackberry
Blackberry Crumb
Apple Berry
Apple Berry Crumb
Rhubarb
Rhubarb Custard
Strawberry Rhubarb
Blueberry
Blueberry Crumb
Pumpkin

Custard
Coconut Custard
Peach Custard
Blackberry Custard
Mixed Berry
Mixed Berry Crumb
Pecan
Chocolate Chip Pecan
Chocolate Cheesecake Pecan
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Key Lime
French Silk
Chocolate Meringue
Coconut Meringue
Lemon Meringue
Banana Meringue
Butterscotch Meringue
Chocolate Banana Meringue
Jail House Rock

Many of the fruit pies can be made with Splenda upon request.

Andy's kitchen is only a couple blocks from the house, damn good.

They are probably supplied by Gordon Food Service, Sysco, or some other supplier handling that area. Not much to choose from, when they all use the same supplier. It's the same here.
Not much different from a chain restaurant, when you think about it.

I'm going to have to check that place out, since I live about 10 miles from Washington.

privately owned restaurants are hardly going away. In small towns, they will always be there. Chains just don't have the desire to cater to small towns. Even franchise folks need a bigger demographic base than many tiny towns offer.

Y'all are making me hungry!

I look for the small, home cookin' places that have lots of cars in the parking lot.

Usually that method doesn't fail me.

In eight days I will be having breakfast at the best place I know. It's up in Idaho, The Hoot Owl.

I love small town local restaurants. I will go out of my way to eat at them for the same reasons mentioned by the OP.

For you Alaska guys, there's a diner in Seward called the Smoke Shack. It's in a couple of old train cars. Man, the breakfast skillets they make there I still dream about.

Yup...I was born and raised here and we have the same Meat and 3 joints now as then. Running strong in fact!

One of my late father-in-law's most embarrassing stories revolved around a small-town diner. While on vacation, he wheeled their car into one, exclaiming, "When you see two phone trucks in the lot, you know the food is good." Imagine his chagrin when the food was awful - and my mother-in-law noted that the phone guys were there to fix the instrument, not to eat.

The rule, however, is usually true: if you see service trucks, cop cars, and/or game wardens parked there - along with several other vehicles - you can count on the fare being better than fair.

We have several around here...and to be honest, I dont eat at most of them. The chains, for the most part, are cleaner, the service is better, and the price is lower. Most of the mom and pop breakfast joints are nasty, and employ pretty questionable folks.

There are still a couple I like, but they are rare.

Or else they've got a good looking, flirty waitress or two working there.

Hard to beat a good old meat and 3. Lots of them have old guys or gals cooking, who know to add some bacon grease to the green beans, etc.. to get that special flavor. Lots better than just pouring it out of a can, heating it up and calling it good!

I look for the places where there are a lot of eighteen-wheelers in the parking lot. Truckers always seem to know where the best places to eat are located. However, I generally avoid truck stops because they all seem to be franchised chains now too.

KC