We recently spent a pleasant evening at Mom's on 6th and Main where one can dine on simple but very reasonably priced cooking. The atmosphere is straight out of the fifties at home, with Formica-topped, kitchen tables and sticky, plastic-covered, dining chair cushions. A jukebox in the background played Paul Anka, Buddy Holly and the King. Several of the patrons were dressed for the part, for example a guy with a pack of Camels in the rolled up sleeve of his T-shirt and girls with wide skirts and saddle shoes.
This isn't your run-of-the-mill fifties food restaurant. For one thing, there's no menu. If you don't care for Mom's casserole, you can sneak bits to the dog under the table or take home leftovers in a school lunchbox doggy bag, otherwise you have to finish up everything on your plate ("There are millions of starving kids in China"). On our visit, we were served meatloaf and lima beans with Miracle Whip topped Jell-O for dessert. Beverages were limited to plastic tumblers of whole milk, Kool-Aid, beer and, on special days, a brown cow (cola and ice cream). A few customers ordered TV dinners and retreated to the "living room" to watch Humphrey Bogart on a little black and white TV. Other evenings have featured macaroni and cheese, sloppy joes or spaghetti from the can. Breakfast can vary from oatmeal to rice crispies with cream to Wonder Bread french toast covered with real butter and maple syrup. Lunch at Mom's can consist of sandwiches with baloney, peanut butter and jelly or egg salad and a soup du jour (pea, tomato or cream of mushroom).
Beyond the humble, wholesome food, the courteous but stern service brings out the kid in you. An aproned woman from the staff sits at each table to ask how school went and to admonish slouchers to sit up straight. Though everyone is expected to clear off the table, money can be saved by cranking the ice cream maker, taking out the garbage or washing the dishes. Each chore results in a gold star, and three gold stars in a month will earn you an "allowance", a rebate on the next meal.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 19 2002 Fifties Diner http://www.nctimes....20010610/95725.htmlNot exactly like home [Canuck, Jun 19 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004] (?) Breakfast with attitude http://www.dailydin...stablishmentID=4109If you want it JUST like home... [Canuck]50's Prime Time Café http://disneyworld....0sPrimeTimeCafeRestBaked to a crisp at Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando Florida. [Canuck, Jun 19 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004] (?) 50's Prime Time Café http://disneyworld....0sPrimeTimeCafeRestBaked to a crisp at Disney/MGM Studios in Orlando Florida. [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Baked, like Mom's Apple Pie (TM). See links!-- Canuck, Jun 19 2002 The difference here is that instead of dining as in a 1950's restaurant, you would relive your own or Gramp's own childhood in the kitchen with modest cuisine, low prices and a very maternal staff.-- FarmerJohn, Jun 19 2002 blissmiss-same here. 'Course, this restaurant would allow all of us who grew up with taste-impaired cooks to have some more pleasant, if somewhat more fabricated, memories of home cooking.-- nick_n_uit, Jun 19 2002 was I supposed to cook? *now* you tell me.-- po, Jun 19 2002 What would possibly make you say that?-- FarmerJohn, Jun 19 2002 that nasty dinner lady gives me the creeps. the word dominatrix is the one on the tip of my tongue.-- po, Jun 19 2002 Actually Mom's boiled eggs always had green yolks and she served liver that made beef jerky seem tender. Dad, on the other hand, could produce stacks of flapjacks that would fill five hungry kids and his cherry pies and home-cut french fries, crocks of sweet pickles, hand-ground peanut butter, ...-- FarmerJohn, Jun 19 2002 This has been baked, almost precisely as described, by Disney at their Disney MGM Studios theme park in Florida. The staff even talks to you as if you are children in the family. I ate there about 4 years ago or so. See link.-- krelnik, Mar 27 2003 random, halfbakery