Good Morning Mama's Café

For the first stop on our foodie adventure, we decided to go to Good Morning Mama's Café, a literal mom and pop restaurant on the southern edge of the Broad Ripple area. Howard and Carol Leuer re purposed an abandoned gas station on 54th St. and, with the help of local artist Blice Edwards, turned it into an adorable eatery complete with a garden patio and high top counter.

As it was a beautiful summer's day, we decided to lunch on the patio. It felt like we were sitting in a cozy garden, as the area was carefully landscaped to conceal much of the street and buildings nearby, to say nothing of the lovely flowers that surrounded us on all sides.

In terms of basic restaurant niceties, our glasses were always full, our table routinely cleared, and our server was efficient, personable and clearly a long time friend of the owners. She recommended the South West Chicken Pannini on ciabatta bread to Cheryl, and I choose the Turkey Club sandwich. While I know it's a pretty basic option, I feel that the true mark of a great restaurant is how well they do simple, everyday meals.

The chicken pannini was, in Cheryl's words, "delicious, with a bit of a kick." Described on the menu as a Texicali fiesta with grilled chicken, tomato, alamtio pesto, and chipoltle mayo, this sandwich was a perfect summertime lunch. Along with a fruit cup and a tall glass of iced tea, it was a definite hit with us.

My club was a refreshing, simple, masterfully constructed beast of a sandwich. It was almost too big to bite into, and never once fell apart (quite an accomplishment!). I couldn't finish more than half of it, though I did get a filling side of fries with my meal.

I would like to take a moment here to discuss my most favorite food: french fries. I love french fries, and I always have. A joint with good fries can get away with almost anything and still make it into my top 20. Bad fries, well, let's hope everything else is phenomenal, and that they keep good ketchup on hand. However, I am not an unreasonable person. If I walk into a creole dive, I'm not going to judge them on their french fries. That would be ridiculous.

Now, back to my fries at Good Morning Mama's. They were passable. Barely salted with no other seasoning and slightly over done, but a decent supplement to the main sandwich. I would suggest skipping them altogether and going for the fruit cup like Cheryl did- it was clearly fresh, prepared in-house and had a good variety.

Open for breakfast and lunch every day but Monday, Good Morning Mama's is a wonderful place to have a quiet meal. We plan to go back to try their breakfast menu, which is served all day. I've got my eye on the Java French Toast (accomplished by mixing kahlua in with the eggs).

Who What When Where Why

Earlier this summer, my grandma, Cheryl, and I decided to get together for lunch. While this was in no way strange, my suggestion that we shake things up by skipping our usual Chinese joint and going somewhere new was unprecedented and enthusiastically accepted.  Being partial to Mexican food, we decided to try La Jolla, a place I had seen driving to and from my job at the Indianapolis Art Center, but had never actually been to.

We had a fantastic meal, and began making plans to visit other restaurants in the area. Walking back through Broad Ripple, we started talking about how fun it would be to keep track of our favorite meals and writing about our various experiences. And so we decided to start a blog where we could keep a commentary on the food scene of Broad Ripple. We both figured there were other such blogs, but after an exhaustive search, I was left to concluded that there were no foodie blogs solely dedicated to Broad Ripple. I found several on the arts, bars, and politics of the town, but couldn't turn up more than a passing mention of area restaurants in similar posts.


Since we didn't go into La Jolla ready to blog about it, we are going to have to go back (much to our chagrin, I assure you) in order to do a full post. Our only rule is that the restaurant has to be in the Broad Ripple area, so feel free to leave us suggestions!