Today we were going to go to the Parrot Cafe on Grand Central in St. Pete. For all the good write-ups I’ve been seeing about the Parrot, it surely was closed this morning.

So we ended up at Country Boy. Country Boy is actually hidden, tucked in on a side road. We’ve driven by here dozens of times and never noticed it. Only because the Parrot Cafe was closed and we were going to run back up into downtown did we even stumble on it.

Country Boy is at 48 31st St N, Saint Petersburg, right behind this meat market on Central. Best meat in town.

Ivo chose exactly what he wanted. That stuff he’s pointing at. I was really drawn to the special, the “$2.00 Holla” which really looked like a good deal. But we settled on pancakes, bacon, and eggs so we’d have something for everyone.

We weren’t the only folks in the place, but there were plenty of empty tables. Ivo took the one closest to the place he was standing when he stopped moving. Kid after my own heart on that.

We brought toys, but who needs them when you’ve got salt and pepper?

I mean, seriously, I’ve never seen Ivo this pleased. It’s like this pepper is just singing to him.

While we’re waiting, I snapped a look at the rest of the place. Small, obviously mom-n-pop. Not seen here is the broken coffee machine, just out of the picture. Apparently it broke this morning and they ran out to get another one.

Monster truck versus salt and pepper!

And here’s breakfast. No coffee, which is a downer, but me and Ivo split an OJ. Pancakes, bacon, and eggs.

And here’s how it divvies up when I do the cutting. Ivo, as you can see here, likes to drink his juice by hand.

Digging in! Ivo has this new thing of picking up food with the fork so he can take it off the fork with the other hand and shove it in his mouth and then drop it on his lap.

When we were done, Ivo paid the bill. About $9 for a pretty large breakfast.

Just like his big brother, Ivo can always find someone to take his money.

Off we go to start the rest of our day! We did not dress alike on purpose.

Country Boy Soul Food is a good experience. The bacon was Steve-Standard good and the eggs were fine. The pancakes I can’t say as I loved, and being out of coffee is a terrible thing, though mechanical failures are the way it goes sometimes. The people here were wonderful, though. Everyone we talked to was friendly as a sunny day and we really enjoyed that. Country Boy is a lot like Martha’s in Tampa. We’re happy to give Country Boy a Tampa Bay Breakfasts three pancake rating.

On our way home we stopped at the St. Pete. Saturday market, where Ivo got to pet lots of big dogs.

And then on the long ride home to Tampa, Ivo ran out of gas. Luckily, the car did not.