Al Smith’s Place
3550 Executive Parkway #12Kids and hotel rooms….there’s just no way to avoid getting up early.
When I travel alone, I sleep right up to check out time. When I travel with my family, I’m up much, much earlier because there’s no place for them to go, so I get woken up. It’s fine though. It gives us a chance to eat breakfast before getting on the road.
We checked out of our downtown Toledo hotel around 9:30 and went looking for someplace to eat. I did the Yelp and Google thing to find a pancake house near Toledo University that people rave about. The big thing there is….near Toledo University. It was packed. People waiting outside. We weren’t waiting outside.
We passed a different place on the way to that pancake house and J said to just try there. Again. Line outside.
She was ready to give up and head to Big Boy, but there was a third place that actually was on my short list when I was looking on the interwebs that we passed. We drove back there and the parking lot actually had spots open, so we were hopeful there wouldn’t be a wait.
Al Smith’s Place is on Executive Parkway on the northwest side of Toledo. It’s a pretty unassuming breakfast, lunch, and dinner spot in the typical strip mall setting.
We were ecstatic to see open tables when we walked in to the restaurant. A hostess grabbed a couple menus and asked if a booth near the back would be ok. We didn’t really care. We just wanted to eat.
The hostess brought us drinks and said our waitress would be with us in a few. I wish the hostess would have been the waitress. The waitress we had never once made eye contact and a lot of the conversation took place as she was walking away from the table.
J was in the mood for a hot tea and I wanted a Pepsi. We got a glass of water for L and waited for the waitress to come back and take our order.
I don’t usually grab the specials menu, but this time I did and damn am I glad I did.
The thing that jumped out at me was the Pulled Pork Benny Skillet. This is exactly what it sounds like. Slow roasted pulled pork on top of home fries topped with Hollandaise and two eggs. I don’t typically rave about roasted pulled pork, but this pork was really, really good. It had the taste of cumin and oregano and it was really good with the home fries. I got the eggs cooked over medium, so it wasn’t a true Eggs Benedict, but the Hollandaise sauce and the yolk from the egg still made a pretty delicious sauce for the mess of meat and potatoes in the skillet.
J got herself an omelet and did the create-your-own thing with cheddar, bacon, and green peppers. This large omelet came alongside home fries and wheat toast. As with most omelet’s, it was way too big for J to finish. She ate a little over half and ate most of the home fries which she said were cooked the way she liked them. They had a nice crispy crust, but were still soft and potate-y in the middle.
L really just wanted bacon, so we ordered her the pancakes and bacon off the kid’s menu. The pancakes came out in the shape of Mickey Mouse and she got one piece of bacon which she scarfed down right away.
Our bill for breakfast was a little over $15 before tip. The breakfast was quite delicious, but the waitress was a little disappointing. She was never flat out rude, but she wasn’t very engaged and it took her a long time to get our check. Breakfast took a little longer than it should have, but we left with filled bellies as we got back on the road back to Kalamazoo.
Pulled Pork Benny Skillet
Create Your Own Omelette w/Bacon, Cheese, and Peppers w/Home Fries and Toast
1 Pancake and 1 Bacon
SW Michigan Dining 