Monthly Archives: June 2010

Yanny’s French Toast King

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Marek struck the executive pose in the Pancake Limousine this morning. Casually, he orders, “get me something unique, driver. I want to be entertained this morning.” He’s been very stressed, what with all the pressures of being a top-rated food critic and breakfast blog media mogul. “Yes, sir!” I replied.

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So I took him to Yanny’s at 1258 S Highland Ave in Clearwater on 19 June 2010. This was our first visit to Yanny’s, and it was a recommendation from TBB Fan Jeff over a year ago. What can I say, we’ve got a busy pancake schedule!

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I came prepared. Dressed for success, as you might notice.

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There’s reserved parking, which is a nice touch.

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Marek and I talked about how this is our 64th published breakfast. Now 64 is a largeish number when you’re talking breakfasts. Marek also pointed out that 2*1=2*2=4*2=8*2=16*2=32*2=64, so the 64th breakfast is also our 2 to the 6th power breakfast, our 111111th breakfast in binary. But if you don’t count the breakfast in Doha (Marek didn’t go to that one because we couldn’t get his passport back from the embassy in time), and if you don’t count 7 re-visits, and if you don’t count the non-commercial visits (grandma’s house and the Lions Club), then really we’ve only visited 110101. Still impressive, but not the binary home run that Marek was hoping for.

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Today is Juneteenth. Tomorrow is Father’s Day. We’re celebrating both with our favorite guest reviewer, Mom.

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And we were joined by veteran guest reviewers, Jeff and Frankie. That’s right, we’ve got a full sack of crazy this morning.

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We all got right down to business with coffee. This was good stuff. The well ran a little dry from time to time as they got busy, but the coffee was just the way we like it. Black and bitter. Check out Marek’s awesome shirt, “S is for Spider.” Now that’s wicked-cool. If only those came in adult sizes.

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Favorite guest reviewer Mom had a hot chocolate. She said it was delicious. I’m sure it was even sweeter because she touched it.

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Mom is, as you may have noticed from my repeated mentioning of the fact, rather pregnant. She got a nice chance to practice being a family of four. I took this picture of Mom, Marek, Jeff, and Frankie together as a family. And then I ran for Mexico.

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The menu has a set of rules on the back. They threatened us with #3.

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So finally, after all this, we got a chance to put in an order for some pancakes. Excuse me, ma’am. How thick are your pancakes? They’re that thick? (Seriously, that’s what we were talking about here.)

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Breakfast came. And so did chaos. Like a reading of Howl in one deep breath, so came enormous cake-like pancakes, bacon, ham, french toast, eggs, grits, and heck, I don’t know, stuff for other people too. So much so fast that I didn’t even get pictures of everything. But Steve, I’m here to tell you, this bacon was Steve Standard. Marek jumped right on it.

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Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom (FGRM) had the most unique french toast we’ve ever seen. She said it was “delish.”

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And Frankie, little Frankie, he had grits. Like a good Southron boy.

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Marek is into putting on his own syrup. Check out Frankie and the pancake heist in progress. That’s a taste of your own medicine, bubba!

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The bill came. Twennysix bucks for three grown ups and two kids for chow we had so much of we couldn’t finish. That’s not a bad deal. Plus, we were a little bit of a tidiness disaster, so it really felt like a value.

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Marek paid the bill, as he does from time to time when he’s not feeling ornery.

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Ever notice how Marek just makes himself at home in kitchens across the Bay Area? If I did that, I’d get arrested. That’s the kind of charisma this kid has. Charm.

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Unique take on pancakes, including the blueberry pancakes. I’m not entirely sure I loved them, but I surely liked them. Steve-standard bacon. Great coffee. Nice folks. Nifty and quirky attitude to the place. And the price was just right. We’re pleased to give Yanny’s French Toast King a Tampa Bay Breakfast four and a half pancake rating.

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Yanny's on Urbanspoon

When we were done with breakfast, we went to Sam’s Books at the Oldsmar Fleamarket.

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As you can see here, Marek was trying to impress the little girl with his Jackson Five moves. You can see the same move at time 1:08 here. (I’m at time 3:00)

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Hi picked out his books and paid the bill. Off we went, home for a nap! That’s a nice morning!

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Nancy’s Home Cookin’

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It’s a long drive to Lutz. But it’s in Hillsborough County, at the outer limits of our TBB territory, so we’re obligated to check it out. We take our jobs as Tampa Bay’s only true Pancake Professionals …. very, very seriously. Lutz is such a far drive, we had to bring our favorite travel guide with us.

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We visited Nancy’s Home Cookin’ restaurant at 17420 US Highway 41 in Lutz on 12 June 2010. This was our first visit to Nancy’s. If you’re going to Nancy’s and you don’t know Lutz, drive slow … it’s tucked away where it’s easy to miss (coming from the south, anyway). I’d tell you to just look for our little blue car as seen in this picture, but as much as we liked the place, we don’t live there.

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Walk inside Nancy’s and you find a tiny, cozy, warm little space. The kind of place you’d describe to a visitor from another country, say, from Paraguay or Estonia, when they asked a question like, “what’s a great ‘mom-n-pop pancake shop’ look like?”

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We immediately noticed that everyone in Nancy’s knew each other. I think Marek and I were the only ones who needed to see a menu. Or get asked what we wanted, now that we think of it. Nancy’s gets top marks for the “full of regulars” measure.

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Nancy’s menu is short and sweet, just like Nancy’s dining room. We thought long and hard, and settled on pancakes, bacon, and eggs. And coffee. I know, I know. We’re full of surprises today.

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Oh man, that’s good motor oil, and we never saw the bottom of the cup! Just the way it’s supposed to be.

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Check out the locally made hot sauces in the corner. That’s pretty neat.

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Stop everything! Here’s breakfast! Pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and an empty plate for Marek.

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A bacon heist in progress. Marek’s plate is now full.

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Somehow it all ended up on Marek’s plate. I bet you didn’t see that coming! The only thing this bacon is missing, apparently, is pepper. But hey, we’ve seen Marek put pepper on pancakes, grapes, ice cream, so don’t assume that he’s on to a good idea here.

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Our loyal readers will remember when Marek was all about the pancakes. We still get up in the morning and say, “I want pancakes, dad!” But, obviously, he says “pancakes” and means “bacon.”

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Marek was finished way before I was and he was just a bit fidgety. So our lovely hostess brought him this fun train to play with. She is shown here giving him the instructions. “This button turns on the Flux Capacitor.”

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When we were all done, Marek paid the bill. About 11 bones for a pretty filling spread, including enough bacon to satisfy Marek.

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He made himself at home behind the counter. Even took a few orders. Answered the phone. Bussed some tables. He knows how to run a good pancake shop.

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He even helped make change. Change for a twenty, not social or political change. He’s only three, after all.

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And I think he tried to get this pretty girl’s phone number, using his tried-and-true line of “I still live with my parents, but I can count to ten and I’ve got breakfast money, baby.”

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When we were done, Marek decided he was driving home. After that big breakfast, I agreed. I slept in the back seat while he took us home. Really. There’s a whole queen-sized fold-out bed in the back of the car. Very cozy. And I’ve owned that caulk gun for over 20 years. I have no idea how I came to be in the position where I could say something like “I’ve owned that caulk gun for over 20 years.”

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On the drive home we had to stop and take a picture of this fire truck. Because Marek saw it and started hollering, “take a picture dad take a picture take a picture take a picture take a picture!”

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So here’s the real scoop on Nancy’s. Add some blueberry pancakes (*) to the menu and this would be perilously close to a perfect breakfast. Oh, and get our cheerful hostess featured in Full Throttle Magazine. Great pancakes, great eggs, best bacon we’ve had in Hillsborough County, wonderful, friendly people, and a reasonable price. We’re pleased give Nancy’s Home Cookin’ a Tampa Bay Breakfast four and a half pancake rating.

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(*) GOOD blueberry pancakes, I feel obligated to mention, not just blueberry compote poured on the top. That’s not the way to treat pancakes, or blueberries.

Nancy's Good n Fast on Urbanspoon

Mom’s Place

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We re-visited Mom’s Place on 29 May 2010. Our last official visit was way back in June 2009. We haven’t met Mom yet to tell her we like her place, but we do like Mom’s Place.

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The front door tells you Mom’s is a support-the-troops place. As a former guy-in-uniform, this is always something nice to see. Sometimes I get asked if I’m still in the service. I always reply yes, yes I am, but standards have reallllly been lowered lately.

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Inside is the definition of home-town, mom-n-pop diner comfort. This is a place where people come to feel good and eat good, too. And with the open kitchen back there, there’s no spitting in the grits here, either.

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Here’s something we’ve never, ever, not in all the Tampa Bay Breakfasts of all time, ever done. Race cars.

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People have been stopping us on the street and asking questions. They say, Marek seems to be all about the race cars, but what does he really know about racing? It turns out, quite a bit. He’s a regular at the Sunshine Drag Strip.

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Mom’s menu is full of “international omelets” that will take 30 minutes to sort through. Lucky for us, we know what we want. Betcha can’t guess … pancakes! (Oh, and also some bacon.)

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A place like Mom’s, you’re almost guaranteed to get good go-juice. Marek likes his bold, bitter, black, and burning-hot.

And so do I.

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I try to educate Marek about the truly important things in life. As our TBB fans know, we talk about literature, politics, military issues, family, good food, racing, foreign policy. But lately I’ve been feeling that there’s a real void. Marek is growing up not knowing anything about Chuck Norris. I started out with a Google Search.

Marek’s going to have a little brother. So I used this opportunity to teach him about the C-Section. The “C-section” is named after Chuck Norris, for when he roundhouse kicked himself through his mother’s stomach when he was born.

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Just as we were getting deep into Chuck Lore, some pancakes arrived. Here’s a good spread. Great eggs, magical disappearing bacon, and some good, solid, all-American pancakes.

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A new thing for us is Marek as syrup-handler. He’s got it goin’ on with that action.

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When we were done we looked at the bill. We’ve been pretty consistently hitting the $11 mark for breakfast these days. Not bad for two growing boys (Marek’s growing in the upward direction, but not me).

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When we paid the bill, Marek took a moment to do what he does best these days. You guessed it, running amok.

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Then this lovely lady says she has some lolllllleeee pops.

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As you can see here, I got one too. Marek took two and handed one to me, “this one’s for you, dad.” Seriously, that’s what he said. In 6 more months it will be followed by, “and can I have some money,” but for now it’s just the sweetest thing ever.

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We discussed Mom’s Place on the way home. Good, solid chow here. Eggs, bacon, pancakes. Never saw the bottom of the coffee cups. Nice folks. Full of locals and regulars. Mom’s is just Our Kinda Place.

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Last time we were here we gave Mom’s a 3.5 rating because the pancakes weren’t so great. But this time around we had a very fine experience. We’re going to bump Mom’s up to a very respectable Tampa Bay Breakfasts four and a half pancake rating.

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Waffle House in Biloxi, MS

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We visited the Waffle House at 1759 Beach Blvd in Biloxi Mississippi on 21 May 2010. There are 16 Waffle Houses in the Biloxi area, and not a single mom and pop pancake shop that we could find. But we were on a road trip. We were hungry. We had to make do. Note the little patch of gray-blue behind the white pickup truck; that’s the Gulf of Mexico. That’s right. A waterfront Waffle House. And you were making fun …

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This was Tampa Bay Breakfasts’ first ever visit to a Waffle House. Here’s an interesting comparison. Pacagoula-Biloxi-Gulfport has 16 Waffle Hausen. The entire Tampa Bay area (like, totally, all of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties) has only 7. Marek scoped the menu. Waffles, hmmm?

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We had to get coffee right away. Me and Marek, we like us some coffee!

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Now regardless of what you think about Waffle House, it is pretty cool that you can watch the magic happen. There’s pretty much no spitting in your grits here!

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We played with Mater. This little guy actually has a wobbly suspension out of the factory. Seriously, roll him across the table and he wobbles back and forth, on purpose. As an authentic redneck-small-town fellow, I’m trying to figure if Disney is making fun of me with this.

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We had breakfast with a Very Pretty Girl this morning.

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Marek made fun of the wobbly suspension problem and got in trouble by mom. Mater appeared nonplussed.

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We had breakfast.

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And more breakfast.

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Marek had lots of bacon. Because, well, I just don’t know.

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The bill came and it was pretty reasonable. We all ate for around eleven bucks. Actually, the three of us split a single “special” and none of us left hungry.

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After breakfast we took a walk on the beach. Our Waffle House is in the distance on the very right of the photograph.

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The water was murky, but that’s how the water is in Biloxi. Can’t blame Katrina or BP for this one; it was like that in 1995 when Famous TBB Guest Reviewer Mom and I lived here in 1995.

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After all that, we felt like, well, we had been to a big chain breakfast, but at least we weren’t hungry. That’ll tide us over for a few hours!

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Long enough to get to Mobile to check out the U.S.S. Alabama!

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Where we had ice cream.

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And learned how to fly jets. (Actually, the jet trainer seats were at the Air Force Armament Museum the next day, but hey, we’re a breakfast blog, not Jane’s, so get off our backs about it!)

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