This kid would melt Stalin’s heart.

We re-visited The Pink Flamingo on 1 May 2010. Our first visit was on 7 June 2009, almost a year ago. That’s a lotta pancakes under the bridge.

We had a great breakfast and Marek went inside to pay the bill.

In order to truly understand his state of mind at this moment, we have to take a Rod Serling-esque trip back in time. To this.

We had great pancakes today. Really, The Pink Flamingo is in the running for the 2010 Breakfast of the Year award. This is a prestigious award won last year by Skyway Jacks.

Is that the Pancake-Powered Race Car? What’s that dog doing in there?

Now I’m going to tell you, The Pink Flamingo’s banana/walnut pancakes really rock. They are fabo, as the kids say these days. But the blueberry pancakes … well, any time a pancake is doctored up after the fact with blueberry goo on top, that’s just not the same thing. These were fine pancakes, but not the kind of inspired work you find in banana/walnut artistry. Steve, you’d not have liked this bacon at all.

Did Marek grow a lot of body hair this morning?

The coffee was just right. And while we did see the bottom of the cup a couple of times, the situation never lasted long enough to be dire. Marek likes him some coffee, folks.

When he doesn’t get his coffee in the morning, he looks like this. It’s rough.

I mean he REALLY likes his coffee!

Who let that dog in here? This is a breakfast restaurant, not a dog park! Crazy people!

While we waited, we played cars. We always have us some cars handy, just in case a drag race breaks out!

Holy moly! That’s OUR DOG! Zimno, The Chaotic Hound. Well-behaved at an outdoor breakfast restaurant, no doubt due to the power-steering collar he’s sporting. Incredible!

This was another great breakfast at The Pink Flamingo! Great chow, nice people, wonderful location. And we brought our four-legs for his first ever Tampa Bay Breakfast. The price was a little high at 14 zlotys, as we’ve noted before, but not so much as to take away from any of the high points.

We really dig The Pink Flamingo!

We’re pleased to re-affirm last year’s rating of four and a half pancakes for this fine Tampa Bay Breakfast!

Out on Davis Island there’s a great dog park. We took all six legs (two for Marek and four for Zimno) out there to play after breakfast. This is Marek with a guy who is not me.

And this is Marek with a dog that is not Zimno.

Who knows what’s going on here…

And we wrapped it all up with an apple.

Marek looks apprehensive. Is it my Angry Inch shirt? Note that the shirt is from the bar, and the bar is named after the movie.

We visited the Anderson Road Cafe at 6002 Anderson Rd on 3 April 2010. The Anderson Road Cafe was a recommendation from Tampa Bay Breakfasts fan Becky and turned out to be quite a gem, despite being tucked back in the middle of a vast industrial area. We drove past all kinds of spooky warehouses in search of this Tampa Bay Breakfast.

Inside was very charming, and it surely looked like they’d been slinging hash for quite a while. Check out that big honkin’ fish on the wall back there.

Marek picked the seat by the race car poster. We knew we were in the right place when we saw this! Also check out how folks have written all along the walls. A nice touch! (Though we didn’t find any markers, so we did not write about how cool Marek is)

The menu wasn’t extensive, but it had all the right stuff on it. We had the pancakes. And bacon. And eggs. And coffee.

The very first thing that happened was coffee. This was good stuff. We couldn’t get enough of that bitter brew! And also, we had some jelly sculpture work to do.

And then breakfast came! That look on Marek’s face is, “what, that’s not bacon!”

I might as well just get Marek a big ole plate of bacon these days.

Marek, do you want to pay the bill? OK, here you go.

Did Marek take the cash straight to the gumball machine? Yes. Yes he did. Did he get gumballs? No, he did not.

We got out of there for about 11 clams. Not bad for two hungry boys.

We’re pleased to present the Anderson Road Cafe with a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four-pancake rating. Thanks, fan Becky, for telling us about this great little breakfast!

We ran errands after breakfast. First we got the oil changed in Mom’s car. If you ask Marek what car mom has, he’ll tell you it’s a “JEEP!” If you ask him what car dad has, he’ll tell you, “it’s a RACE CAR!” Boy knows what’s good!

Then we stopped to get mom a surprise.

Is this a guided missile straight into any girl’s heart? I believe it is. Sorpreso, mom! Special delivery!

We visited Lenny’s at 21220 Us Highway 19 N in Clearwater on 6 March 2010. Lenny’s was recommended to us by our old friend and Tampa Bay Breakfast alum, Jeff. This was our first visit.

Lenny’s is clearly a Baseball Place. A Phillies place. I was in Little League in the early 80s. That’s the extent of my baseball knowledge. Oh, also, I do know that “ball” in Spanish is “pelota.”

So we’re not reaaaallllly baseball kids, Marek and I. But we ARE hometown kids. Which means that given the choice we love the Rays, the Bucs, and the Bolts. And we pay jusssttt enough attention to baseball to know that last year the Phillies were really rude to Rays fans during the World Series. We’re keeping an open mind, but first we’re going to try out these awesome bleacher seats.

Marek says, “come ON, Homer, less cornball more pancake!”

Inside is crowded. That’s a good sign. We can’t imagine this many people showing up for pukecakes and ickybacon. Everyone’s very friendly and welcoming. We get a booth right away. See the baseball bats on the ceiling?

Immediately we realize that we’ve sat in the dangerous Dune Buggy Zone. Watch Out! Dune Buggies! Run!

Marek gets it under control right away. Then he starts just whipping these cars around at Maximum Dune Buggy Speed, which is not exactly NASCAR speed, but it’s still way too fast for the breakfast track.

Lucky for all the innocent bystanders, the cops showed up. German cops, in fact.

All this, and we haven’t even looked at the menu. What a day, and it’s only 0830. Check out the Redneck Benedict. Now think about this from a breakfast science point of view. Can you REALLY go wrong in a place that has “Redneck Benedict” on the menu?

Really, now, can you?

Well. Probably.

But when you flip the page and find all these fine breakfasts named after lovely ladies from decades past, you realize then that this is a Good Place. Any breakfast joint that loves breakfast enough to name it “Lorraine” is OK by us.

Right away they brought us the “complimentary Danish basket.” Now I tell you, this almost threw off our mojo. We came here to sample the pancakes, but we could have just fell into this basket, had a cuppa Joe and left full. These were good Danishes! Marek pulled a snatchy-grabby on one before the basket hit the table.

And the good news kept rolling in. Here comes coffee!

Boldly Black. This is good, standard diner swill. Just the way we like it. And it didn’t stay empty long, which is also the way we like it.

We start talking sports and breakfast. You know, the kinds of things all fathers and sons discuss. Marek says, hey old man, if you took the Rays and the Phillies and gave them all dune buggies and told them to race from here to Thonotosassa, who do you think would win? I answered calmly, with the gravitas that comes with age and experience. Clearly, the Tampa buggy team would win. While Philly folk may beat us on being rude, the concept of Road Rage was invented in Tampa. We agreed. Cheers!

Since we were having a Serious Baseball Discussion in what is obviously a Serious Baseball Place, we tried to play the part by getting in each other’s faces about abstract statistics of players who died in 1926. If only we had beer to throw at each other!

Lucky for me, breakfast came. Marek was starting to get a little upset that I thought the ‘74 Oakland A’s would have made lousy dune buggy racers. Notice the bacon heist in progress. Where’s the Polizei when you need them?!

As you may have figured out by now, dear reader, Marek is not adverse to a little bacon with his pancakes. What is not obvious here is that I also am not adverse to a little bacon with my pancakes. But I seem to have lost all the bacon when I was busy fiddling with taking a picture. That, loyal TBB fans, is the price that I pay for you every weekend. We at Tampa Bay Breakfasts are about service and sacrifice.

Marek gave that bacon the Houdini treatment and jumped into some pancakes.

Can you tell by looking at these pictures that the pancakes need something? What do you think it is? Butter? Syrup? Fruit? Chocolate chips?

If you thought any of those, you’d be just wrong. Clearly, preposterously wrong. These pancakes need pepper.

What? Don’t look at ME. It wasn’t MY idea. I’m not going to eat that.

But sure enough, Marek digs right in. I think he gets that from his mother’s side.

The bacon, what I was able to smell, anyway, was really good. Not Steve-crisp, but still pretty good. The eggs were a little runnier than I really love, but they were still very tasty. The pancakes were yummy but kind of small. This stack makes up for a lack of girth by being tall, but still they’re sort of smallish. Dune buggy added to show scale.

When we were done with breakfast, we took some quality time to goof off. Or perhaps I could be whispering in his ear to behave or I’ll spank you back to last Tuesday. Or maybe just a little bit of both.

And I might be wrong here, but I’m pretty sure that I am the only person to ever review a breakfast in the Tampa Bay area while wearing a t-shirt with a Djibouti flag on it. Trend-setting, the Tampa Bay Breakfast way. That’s what sets us apart from those other guys.

Marek decided he would pay the bill. He took the money and the check and disappeared. I mean really disappeared. He got caught up in a crowd of baseball fans and swept away to the other part of the restaurant. I figured I’d just wait it out. He’s a highly trained and experienced Pancake Professional. He’ll find his way.

And he did. Five minutes later he comes back around and hands me the bill and the money. I don’t work here, junior! But we took care of the bill together. Breakfast for two, just under 14 Yen. Not cheap. Good chow and we didn’t feel ripped off, but we did agree that this was not a cost-effective breakfast.

On our way out the door we got jammed up by a crowd pushing in. So we looked at the postcard rack by the register. As our dedicated Tampa Bay Breakfast fans know well, Marek’s middle name is Inglis. Inglis happens to be where you would find Follow That Dream Parkway. Half a pancake point bump to Lenny’s for this nice little tie-in with home.

We left happy and full. Still arguing about the cross-over sport of baseball dune buggy racing, but at least breakfast was behind us!

Then we get to the car and Marek asks for an apple. So I gave the kid an apple.

We had a great time at Lenny’s. Great breakfast, though not very cheap, quality and endless coffee, danishes. Friendly people, full of regulars, and lots of unique flair. While we’re not “baseball people” we are breakfast people, and so is Lenny’s. We’re pleased to give Lenny’s a Tampa Bay Breakfast rating of four and a half pancakes.

Later that night we went and saw the Bolts win one. We haven’t heard the horn blow that many times all year! Marek spent the game hollering “Go Tampa!” while his mom was hollering “Fight, fight! Take the gloves off!” Crazy kids.

It’s a special double-header weekend! Marek and I had the day off so we went and had breakfast again. We went to The Gold Ring at 2510 N. Tampa Street. This was our first visit to The Gold Ring. They have a web site at http://goldringcafe.com/. I drive by The Gold Ring on the way to work every morning and it looked like a warm, homey, greasy spoon diner. It does not look like any picture you will find on their web site!

Inside is just a small little diner that seems to mostly cater to take-out. The menu is on the overhead and is pretty short and straightforward. Eggs. Toast. Hashbrowns. Grits. Bacon. Sandwiches. Coffee. Looks like some Cuban influence. Sort of Havana meets Down-South. The menu actually reminded me of the kind of truck-stop diner I used to favor when I was a lot younger and used to drive between Nashville and Inglis or Biloxi and Ocala all the time.

While I was looking at the menu, Marek grabbed a seat and pulled out some cars. He had two special cars, a “Race Car, dada” and a “it’s Green Car!” These two cars saw a lot of action both on and off the table-top.

We took a look around while we waited. Just a small diner, looks like it’s been here for at least three decades (the web site says they’ve been catering for 30 years, so there you go!).

We played more cars! There was a steady stream of customers, almost all of whom were getting take-out. While they waited they watched us. Most of the folks waiting started out sort of grim-looking. But after just a few minutes of watching Marek work his magic with race cars they warmed up. Marek got quite a few waves and hand-shakes by the time we were done!

Then breakfast came! You know how we feel about breakfast! Marek had pretty much all the bacon and a little toast. I had the eggs and hashbrowns and rest of the toast. It was a pretty filling meal, though the eggs were a little runnier than I personally care for. Marek chowed down on that bacon, though. He’s got a new passion.

Marek asked for orange juice. He got hooked up just right.

I had the large coffee. I had a choice of American or Cuban. I went with the Cuban and I was not disappointed. This was really delicious coffee. This alone is worth the stop. As you can see, even Marek liked it and he’s been off his coffee kick for months now. Some new-age diet of his, I think. You know how kids are these days, with their all-bacon/no-caffeine diets.

So here’s something interesting. The bill was $7.25, which I thought was pretty reasonable for a good-sized breakfast and a great coffee and a juice. I stuffed the two dollars in the tip jar at the counter and kept the three quarters. Whenever I get a pocket of change I always look for bicentennial quarters because I think they’re neat. So I look at these three quarters and notice that the dates on them are 1966, 1967, and 1980. They gave me three coins and one of them is 30 years old and the other two are over 40 years old. How odd is that?

When we were done we walked outside, after saying goodbye and adios to everyone. Marek had a new group of fans! We stopped to take a picture together because, honestly, we’d forgotten to take one inside!

The Gold Ring is really more of a take-out joint than a sit-in diner, which is sort of at the edge of the kind of breakfasts we tend to review (Especially since they don’t have pancakes!). The web site certainly counts as the “unique factor,” that and this corner is the only place in Tampa where I have ever actually heard gunfire. The price is reasonable and the place is full of regulars who don’t start out overly friendly but still end up that way. The food is pretty good, but the coffee is really excellent. We give The Gold Ring a Tampa Bay Breakfasts three-pancake rating.

We revisited Pop-n-Sons diner on 30 January 2010. Our first visit was back in May 2009. We had a fine time then, and we had a fine time today. As you can see from the sign, they have a special on scrapple. Grandpaw will be interested to know that!

Check out the neat mural of a drive-in out on the front porch.

This Tampa Bay Breakfast was a real treat. We had our favorite guest reviewer, Mom!

Here’s a nice touch. We sit down and automatically they bring us crayons.

This never happens to me when I’m alone, so I’m taking advantage of the crayons! Also, check out my kickin’ LISA09 shirt! Am I a nerd or what? Don’t make fun of me, Hugh, you’ve got the same shirt.

Marek says, hey old man, you’re always making me give you a kiss. How ’bout un beso for me?

Here’s a nice menu. Not the most comprehensive menu in town, but all the basics are here. And the prices are reasonable, too.

We had some coffee. This pitch-black swill was like having a cup of used battery acid mixed with old Mac truck motor oil. By which I mean it was perfect. This is some great diner coffee!

Even Mom got into the act. Though she doesn’t appreciate the concept of “diner coffee” so she tried the hot chocolate instead. She’s so cute.

Watch out! Here comes breakfast! This is a fine spread. We jumped into having three pancakes because we remembered them being a bit small on our last visit. Like that Grabby McGrab paw coming in from the left? There was an actual “yoink” sound.

Marek didn’t seem to care for the pancakes, but he surely loved that bacon!

Our guest reviewer said that the French toast was the best she’s had all day. She’s “in a family way,” which pretty much means that anything she eats has to taste good both going down AND coming back up. We’ll see what happens.

Marek wondered if I had something special going on over here. Of course I did — I had breakfast! Marek had best watch out, he’s coming in through the Breakfast Spider entrance.

Marek declined to pay the bill today. Something about how he was having a bout of sympathetic morning sickness. But the bill for two-and-a-half was a shade over 17 bucks. A little pricey, maybe, but not the most expensive we’ve seen.

On the way out the door, we got into a philosophical discussion about pops with nice lady. Is there truly anything finer than to see a bowl of pops like this?

By the time we got home, the pops had done the trick. Check out that tongue!

We had a very nice re-visit to Pop-n-Sons Diner. The breakfast is good eating, the prices are OK, and the people are super-nice from start to finish. The 50s diner motif is always fun. And breakfast with Mom is always a winner! Thanks, Mom, for joining us!

We’re pleased to re-affirm this Tampa Bay Breakfast’s four-pancake rating!