Hartford

Breakfast Is Other People

by Jamil Ragland | May 8, 2024 3:13 pm

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Posted to: Food

Ashley’s Breakfast and Lunch
Hartford
May 8, 2024

I’ve been going to Ashley’s on Main Street since I was a kid. It was a special treat when my mother would take me and my two brothers to the Hartford staple and we got to eat someone else’s pancakes for a change. I’ve treated it like a special reward for myself ever since, and even though I’ve been many times, I wouldn’t call myself a regular.

Not like Maria. She’s been coming to Ashley’s regularly for 15 years. She’s known Mom, the owner of the restaurant, for that whole time. She was friends with Mom’s daughter, also named Maria, until she passed away. 

Maria grew up in Hartford, and although she lives in Windsor now, she still tries her best to get back to Ashley’s as often as she can. I asked her what she likes to order.

“I get the western omelet and well-done home fries,” she said. ​“The food is always the same, and it’s always good.”

Demetra, also known as ​“Mom” to a large swath of the Ashley’s faithful, has been running the restaurant for over 60 years. I asked her what made her decide to work in a restaurant.

“Because I came from Greece and didn’t speak English at all in 1960,” she said as if the answer was obvious. ​“My husband had this place, and I was in the kitchen, and that’s been my whole life, working seven days a week.”

Even on a rainy Wednesday morning, when I thought things would be slow enough to get a few quotes, the customers kept coming. Many made a point to go pay their respects to Mom before they sat down in their booths. 

Speaking of booths, I didn’t just interview people. I ate too. I knew exactly what I wanted when I got there: orange juice, pancakes, bacon and home fries. My server Lisa was great, and she attended to my every need even as she flew around the restaurant from table to table. 

I’m very much into potatoes, and the treatment of my favorite starch can make or break a meal. Thankfully the home fries were well done without being greasy, lightly seasoned to enhance the flavor. I devoured half of them before I even looked at the rest of my food.

Next I dug into the bacon. It was piled in a crumpled heap on my plate, with the fried pork winding onto itself like curly French fries. (See photo at the top of the story.) It was crispy on the edges and tender in the middle, cooked as perfectly as any bacon I’ve had before. I didn’t save any to eat alongside the main course of the breakfast.

Fortunately, the pancakes required no accompaniment. They were fluffy and golden, just thick enough to absorb the copious amount of syrup I poured on them. They were slathered in butter and powdered sugar, and felt like sweet pillows as I cut them and placed them in my mouth. 

Aside from hospitality, Ashley’s is well known for giving its customers plenty of good food. I only managed to eat about half of my pancakes and three-quarters of the home fries, plus all the bacon and two glasses of orange juice.

OK, it sounds like a lot when I write it out, but I have a healthy amount of leftovers too. 

“Everyone works hard,” Maria said to me before I left Ashley’s. The quality of the food, cleanliness of the restaurant and speed of the service attest to that. Ashley’s is a family restaurant, not just because it’s owned by one, but because everyone who comes in is treated like a long lost relative.

NEXT

Ashley’s is open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week.

Jamil goes to learn more about the Civil War.

Tags: Hartford , restaurant , breakfast