Mommy and Maddi's in Keizer

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This was rare and surprising dining find which we came across after driving an hour and a half trying to find an interesting place to eat.... We drove south through Canby, Aurora, Hubbard, and Woodburn, approaching the state capital of Salem on HWY 99 (see map below) but as we approached Salem we turned right towards Keizer (on Wikipedia) hoping to find an interesting restaurant there. 

This took us through a huge section of flatlands with hills many miles away on each side. It was almost all beautiful farmland but not the hilly wine country you encounter when going in other directions. Most of the farms (there are numerous photos on the bottom of this page) were devoted to other crops and there were a few dairy farms.

On a street with nothing but stores and commercial buildings we spotted the restaurant. It is between a pot store and a chiropractor's office.

It opened 13 years ago in this lovely house which was built in 1914 and somehow remained standing as the street succumbed new construction and commercialization. 

This is from their Facebook page:

You can see that additions were added to the original house. We ate in a room that was added.

It is owned by a mother-daughter team as the name suggests. Here's their extensive menu.

Below, there's a large parking lot and a drive-trough window in the back.

The food was amazing. We talked to the man sitting next to us, a Vietnam vet who used an electric wheel chair to get there from his home a mile away. Below is him crossing the busy street on his way home.

He said since it opened he came there to eat at least twice a week. This surely qualifies him as a regular.

Here are some photos I took of the interior:

I had what was described on the menu as "the best chicken sandwich ever" and the soup of the day, broccoli cheddar. It  truly was the best chicken sandwich I'd ever had.

As you can see I could  only eat a little of the bread.

My friend had a giant bacon mushroom Swiss omelet with perfect hash browns (below) and also couldn't finish it.

There are over 50 photos on their Yelp page:

Here are photos of the countryside:

The only downside to the day happened when we were stopped by this for about a half hour.

We finally got going and had to follow the pilot car for several miles. 

This screwed up the navigation so we reset it to go home on the freeway. Then we hit bumper to bumper traffic and decided to get off but I could set the navigation not to go back on the expressway so we followed signs to Lake Oswego which we knew how to get home from. It took us at least two hours to get home.

All in all it was a very worthwhile outing. 

Libbie's Restaurant Milwaukie, OR

 

About my career and about the Mason Mental Health Center ||||| My 1400+ Daily Kos political stories are here || Open just this page || Back editions (archive) in right column.

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Notice that the door and big window you can see through only shows half the dining area. The door next to it which has a sign saying that minors are not allowed because it is a bar is the entrance to where everyone was eating. It is a solid door with no window.

 I wonder if this restaurant wants to cater only to locals and others who know about it. After all the menu says it is Milwaukie's best kept secret.

The Libbie's website

It was Sunday night and the plan was to eat at either Cha! Cha! Cha! or Ovation, our two favorite restaurants in the closest town of Milwaukie. There are about a half dozen restaurants on their Main Street and one, the popular Grandma's Corner Kitchen (website), on the heavily traveled McLoughlin which runs parallel to Main Street. Both Cha! Cha! Cha! and Ovation were closed so we decided to try Libbie's which is next door to Cha! Cha! Cha! We'd looked inside the window several times before but there were never any diners inside. 

Above: From a website

None-the-less we went in and indeed there was a large dining area which was totally empty. It turns out that all the diners were in a room through the door into the bar section. 

The liver and onions were quite good. The soup of the day was Italian wedding soup and it was delicious.  Below, the Manila clams were average but they were serve in a clam shaped bowl.

This is one of the better humorous bar signs I've seen:

The person writing the menu who described a BLT  as "Come on! You know what's on this one!" had a sense of humor:

Below is the backroom which is available for functions:

Here's a YouTube video from 2012 about Libbie's:

The menu (click to enlarge each page) is extensive and the prices can't be beat.

Libbie's has only one TV. It was tuned to a professional basketball game but nobody was paying any attention. There are two or three lottery type game machines.

I asked the the seventy-ish year old waitress who wasn't particularly friendly (perhaps she was having a bad day) who Libbie was and she said she didn't know. I gave her a 30% tip anyway.

The Libbie's website has photos taken some time ago and it doesn't look like these today:

There's no more Golden Nugget Bar.

The closest restaurants to where I live are actually ones I've never been to. It makes sense to try them out. 

One is McQueen's Bar and Grill (website) a few minutes drive on River Rd. The other is in the other direction - The River Roadhouse. It is just to the right as you drive up the hill on 22nd Ave. coming back from Milwaukie. I may check them out. 

Above from the River Road House Facebook page.