{"id":1871,"date":"2010-08-22T22:03:02","date_gmt":"2010-08-23T02:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=1871"},"modified":"2010-12-19T20:31:03","modified_gmt":"2010-12-20T00:31:03","slug":"munchs-restaurant-and-sundries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=1871","title":{"rendered":"Munch\u2019s Restaurant and Sundries"},"content":{"rendered":"

We visited Munch’s Restaurant at 3920 6th Street South<\/a> in St. Pete on 21 August 2010. This was our first visit to Munch’s, and we heard about this little gem via a recommendation on the Breakfast Hotline. Munch’s has a very groovy web page at http:\/\/www.munchburger.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"munch-outside2\"<\/p>\n

Right away we were struck with how perfect Munch’s is, in the diner-sense of the word “perfect.” Cozy booths, a great lunch counter. Obvious investment of a lot of time over the years making this a personal and warm place. A bit sublime, really, the atmosphere here.<\/p>\n

\"munch-inside\"<\/p>\n

After all that wistful, nostalgiac, philosophical thinking, we had to play cars.<\/p>\n

\"munch-cars1\"<\/p>\n

After all that work, the cars fell asleep. This makes it a challenge to play with them, honestly. But I don’t make the rules here.<\/p>\n

\"munch-cars2\"<\/p>\n

Notice anything different about Marek? Did you think that maybe he got new glasses<\/a>? Or maybe that his old man (that’s me) sent his butt off to the Army …<\/p>\n

\"haircut1\"<\/p>\n

… Where he got a regulation haircut. Oddly enough, he kept telling me it was my turn. Yeah, like THAT’s gonna happen.<\/p>\n

\"haircut6\"<\/p>\n

He spent the whole ride home enjoying that fresh, fuzzy feeling on the back of his head. Now that’s a haircut you can set your watch to.<\/p>\n

\"haircut10\"<\/p>\n

So now that the mystery is cleared up, let’s get back to breakfast. The menu has all kinds of healthy goodness in it, and a heaping pile of not-so-healthy-but-really-goodness too. Check out this little number on the back of the menu.<\/p>\n

\"munch-menu\"<\/p>\n

We debated the various merits, back and forth, on what to drink. After a lot of arguing, we settled on coffee, for a change.<\/p>\n

\"munch-coffee\"<\/p>\n

While we waited for morning chow we noticed the walls covered with pictures from the local middle school. These pictures went back decades. Munch’s is truly a place with a deep root in this neighborhood. You just can’t franchise that.<\/p>\n

\"munch-pictures\"<\/p>\n

When breakfast came we were both hungry and delighted in equal measures. We actually got two breakfasts rather our usual M.O. of splitting one. I like to say “M.O.” so that my writing gets a Mickey Spillane<\/a> feeling to it. I’m like Mike “Breakfast” Hammer. Marek had some little pancakes and as much bacon as I’d let him have. It never seems to be enough.<\/p>\n

\"munch-breakfast3\"<\/p>\n

I had the blueberry pancakes and the scrambled eggs. The eggs were quite nice and the blueberry pancakes were something special.<\/p>\n

\"munch-breakfast2\"<\/p>\n

I was really enjoying all of this when I was rudely interrupted during breakfast by a series of phone calls. First, the ketchup starts ringing off the hook.<\/p>\n

\"munch-phone1\"<\/p>\n

Then, as soon as I hung up, it was the syrup.<\/p>\n

\"munch-phone2\"<\/p>\n

Finally, when the pepper rang I had to get rude and tell them to just stop calling. <\/p>\n

\"munch-phone3\"<\/p>\n

Here’s the only flaw we found in our whole breakfast experience. That’s an empty coffee cup on the left. Stayed that way until we flagged down someone.<\/p>\n

\"munch-empty\"<\/p>\n

We’re going to give a free pass on the echoing cavern of the empty cup because when we went to wash up we were treated to this lovely larger-than-life Baywatch girl on the inside door of the men’s latrines.<\/p>\n

\"munch-latrines\"<\/p>\n

The bill came. It was high by our usual standards, weighing in at 14 clams, but considering that we had two meals instead of our usual singleton, I think that’s OK. Oh, and that blue superbeetle with the intake stacks and derby numbers, it’s got a blown front axle and bad wheel bearings all around. It spent a few weeks in the bathtub and managed to find its way into the Pancakemobile and onto the breakfast circuit. Another mystery solved. <\/p>\n

\"munch-bill\"<\/p>\n

Marek paid the bill. Don’t you just love that haircut? He looks like a six-year-old, only half-as-tall.<\/p>\n

\"munch-marek-pays\"<\/p>\n

He found the register and handled the transaction like a pro. Which, obviously, he is considering that he’s been doing this for half his life!<\/p>\n

\"munch-marek-pays2\"<\/p>\n

When we were leaving I saw this sign. I’m glad that Marek got that haircut and looks so old, otherwise they’d have auctioned his butt off at the next bake sale.<\/p>\n

\"munch-sign\"<\/p>\n

Munch’s being a restaurant AND a sundries place, we had to stop and buy a 15 cent pop on our way out the door.<\/p>\n

\"munch-pop\"<\/p>\n

This was one fine breakfast! We talked about it on the way out the door.<\/p>\n

\"munch-kiss\"<\/p>\n

We talked about it while having a tootsie-pop.<\/p>\n

\"munch-pop2\"<\/p>\n

We talked about it while we were listening to the brand new Android Lust<\/a> album that I just got in the mail the day before. <\/p>\n

\"munch-music\"<\/p>\n

We talked and talked and talked. And we decided that Munch’s is as close to a perfect diner as we’ve found. Great food, lots of locals, been-here-forever and it shows. Prices good, lots of interesting things to keep you coming back. Great food. Oh, and the food was great. I think we’re going to have to break down and pull out our five-pancake rating for the second time in as many months.<\/p>\n

We’re pleased to award Munch’s Restaurant and Sundries with a Tampa Bay Breakfasts Five Pancake Rating.<\/p>\n

\"one-pancake\"\"one-pancake1\"\"one-pancake2\"\"one-pancake3\"\"one-pancake3\"<\/p>\n

\"Munch's<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We visited Munch’s Restaurant at 3920 6th Street South in St. Pete on 21 August 2010. This was our first visit to Munch’s, and we heard about this little gem via a recommendation on the Breakfast Hotline. Munch’s has a very groovy web page at http:\/\/www.munchburger.com\/. Right away we were struck with how perfect Munch’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11,3,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american","category-breakfasts","category-hillsborough"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p30Aox-ub","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=124","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":0},"title":"Clearwater Marina Restaurant on Clearwater Beach","date":"May 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We visited the Clearwater Marina Restaurant 25 Causeway Blvd in Clearwater on 10 May 2009. Today was Mother's Day, so in honor of mom we struck out way beyond our normal territory with the plan of leaving the house empty and quiet at least until after lunch. Andy's been to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/clearwater-stickers.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5257,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=5257","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":1},"title":"Seahorse Restaurant","date":"October 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"We're at Pass-a-Grille beach this lovely Florida morning. And we're hungry. This morning we're going to try out the Seahorse Restaurant at 800 Pass a Grille Way, St. Pete Beach, FL. The Seahorse is a recommendation from TBB fan Becca and TBB fan Todd. It's a special breakfast morning, because\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Breakfasts"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/s09.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":139,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=139","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":2},"title":"Ranch House Restaurant","date":"May 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We visited the Ranch House Restaurant at 7706 W Hillsborough Ave on 16 May 2009. There's another Ranch House on Gandy, but it doesn't appear to be the same place. The one on Gandy is a Greek sort of place, while this Ranch House has a definite Hispanic flair. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/ranch-house-what.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5433,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=5433","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":3},"title":"2013 Tampa Bay Breakfast of the Year","date":"December 21, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Marek, Ivo, and I are pleased to announce the 2013 Tampa Bay Breakfast of the Year. This award is on the \"short list\" of the world's greatest achievements, just below the Nobel Prize and just in front of the Daytime Emmy Awards. No restaurant has ever won the award of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Administrative"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2228,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=2228","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":4},"title":"The Front Porch","date":"December 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We re=visited The Front Porch restaurant at 12039 North Florida Avenue in Dunnellon on 26 November 2010. This was our 79th visit to the Front Porch and our second official Tampa Bay Breakfasts visit. I did grow up here, y'know. We always love coming here. It's a perfect family diner\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/m-front-bill.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4288,"url":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/?p=4288","url_meta":{"origin":1871,"position":5},"title":"Tampa Bay Breakfast of the Year for 2012","date":"December 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Ivo, Marek, and I are pleased to announce the 2012 Tampa Bay Breakfast of the year. This prestigious award has been called \"The Nobel for Breakfasts\" and \"Huh? What are you talking about?\" by international news sources. Restaurants who win this accolade go on to see a spike of about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Breakfasts"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1871"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2313,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1871\/revisions\/2313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tampabaybreakfasts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}