Today we’re giving Pinellas some breakfast love. It’s a long ride, so we cruised across the Gandy listening to our latest local-band find, Have Gun Will Travel. We <3 local music.

We visited The Busy Bee at 7345 49th Street North in Pinellas Park on 14 August 2010. This was our first visit to The Busy Bee, and we liked it as soon as we walked in the door.

Marek and I have always felt that a good diner should have an exposed kitchen. The guy with a Mohawk is just a bonus.

The menu is good, old-fashioned, quality breakfast chow. No big surprises here. Well, except for the “Assorted cold cereals with mild”. We can probably blame some left-brain/right-brain cross-talk there, since the ‘k’ and the ‘d’ are both the middle finger on the keyboard. At least it’s not “cereals with mold.” That would be terrible.

First thing we did was get coffee. This is good morning go-juice! Marek, for the second week in a row, put in our order. “I want pancakes. And dad wants eggs. And coffee. Thank you ma’am.” Kid knows what he wants, and he’s polite, too. Let’s see how long this lasts. I’m thinking until he’s 10, then it’s all down hill.

When was the last time you saw a Hebby Chebby slung that low? And what the foxtrot is that orange car? Some sort of futuristic jet-powered contraption, it seems. Probably a direct descendant of the early Chrysler turbine car. Check out the double-decker bus and the 1986 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck behind Marek’s coffee. Do you think a London bus and an ’86 Chevy pickup have ever been parked next to each other? Not until this moment, breakfast fans. As always, you can count on us for innovation in both the breakfast AND automotive departments.

When breakfast came we were ready. We had an appetite that you can only get from a morning of playing cars. Our first impression was, this is sort of a smallish breakfast. But it turned out to be just a smallish plate; we really did walk out of here with full bellies.

Marek actually gained an audience from several tables as he took care of the syrup.

As our loyal TBB readers may know, Marek can be picky sometimes. But he didn’t hold back from these hotcakes. It helps that I don’t let him eat for 24 hours before we do an official breakfast, just to be sure I can get a good picture of him eating something. Fashion models do the same thing.

Marek’s verdict? The Busy Bee is a knock-out breakfast!

The whole thing set us back under eight clams. NOW we’re talking good value. We’re not disparaging the more expensive places, but an $8 breakfast means we have something left over for the flea market. (That’s the “flohmarkt” for our German readers.)

After Marek woke from his pancake pause, he jumped up to pay the bill.

After wandering around for a while, he finally found someone to take his money. Everyone here treated him like he was their own grandkid. Not only was Marek the youngest kid in the dining area, but I think I was the second youngest.

Marek brought back change, and TWO lollipops!

We had a great visit to The Busy Bee. Great folks, everyone (but us, of course) were by-name regulars getting “the usual.” Really good chow: Eggs were delicious, bacon just right, and the pancakes were exactly what we had in mind. Black and bitter coffee. And lollipops at the end. It’s all good at The Busy Bee!

Thanks Busy Bee! See you next time!

We’re pleased to give The Busy Bee a Tampa Bay Breakfasts Four Pancake Rating.

With all the money we saved at breakfast, we were able to go to The Wagon Wheel!

We got to hold and pet a bird.

And we found this table of cars. 50 cents each, or three for a dollar! (We got three for a dollar, of course!)

Marek picked out two stock cars and I picked out the solar car because I’m a believer in the future of clean energy, and because I was completely impressed that Matchbox made a solar car. We love Matchbox.