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We didn’t have any Mother’s Day plans yesterday. When Joe asked me if I had heard of the The Ohio House, I said yes, but when he replied, “Did you know they serve food?”, I had to say no. The Centennial Cafe opened just a few months ago in The Ohio House, one of the only remaining structures built for the 1876 Centennial Exposition (Memorial Hall, where the Please Touch Museum is moving to in October is the other). We decided to check it out.

When we walked into “The Centennial Cafe at The Ohio House”, we weren’t sure if we had to order at the counter or not. I asked the woman at the register, and she acted surprised that we wanted to sit, but had a man lead us into a dining room. A large group was right on our heels, and the man started setting up tables for them, without letting us know where we could sit. We got his attention, and he said we could sit at the table we were eyeing. There were paper placemats on the table that had the remnants of the last customers’ meals. They never offered us a high chair (Lil is okay in a regular seat, but she likes high chairs– she’s also short). We piled the three dirty placemats over to one side, and when the man came over, he took 2 of them (left one with coffee rings on it) and never replaced them. We looked over the menu, which had things like 2 eggs and toast for $3.29, and a side of meat for $1.50– seemed reasonable. When the woman who was at the register came over, we asked about specials. There was a Mother’s Day special– 2 eggs, meat, toast, hash browns and a small coffee. We both ordered that with bacon, I got scrambled eggs to share with Lilia, Joe got over-easy.

The food showed up– brought by a third person. Joe had sausage and scrambled eggs. We had no silverware. Lilia had no plate (eventually she got a cool zebra plate). They gave Joe bacon, but didn’t change the eggs. He tried to eat them, but he doesn’t like them, so he had to send them back. He asked for silverware– we got plastic utensils. When they took his plate back, he lost his fork and had to get another one. I kept making Joe ask for things we didn’t have– napkins, ketchup, salt and pepper, jelly for the toast (when he asked for a jelly, the man handed him ONE packet).

Meanwhile, a woman who I thought was the owner came by a few times to say hello to Lilia. She also gave me a little votive candle, which I thought was a nice touch, but would have rather had her invest in some good service! I think her husband was there too. We were not the only ones having issues– the large group had some trouble too.

We finished up and never got a bill. We decided to just go up to the register, and when they rang up our food, the total was almost $30!! I was almost speechless! The register was computerized, so they needed to take off the extra bacon or something– but I still thought the meals would be about $7.00 each, right? It turns out the Mother’s Day special was the opposite of a special– it was $10.99! Fine, whatever, we paid, and then spent some time walking around the outside of the building– Joe took a bunch of pictures– it’s a pretty cool building. But man, what a lame breakfast experience. To sum up my review: The Centennial Cafe: Cute idea, I wish them luck, but the service stinks and the food wasn’t that great, and they jack up the prices for Mother’s Day. We said, MAYBE we’d go back and get something to go. MAYBE.

Afterwards, we drove past Memorial Hall to see the construction on the Please Touch Museum. We saw two signs for two historic houses– Sweetbriar and Cedar Grove. I’m not sure if Sweetbriar was open– we stopped and walked around to see the view (of the Schuylkill Expressway– we tried to imagine what it was like before…) and we admired a very very VERY large Mulberry Tree. We continued over to Cedar Grove, and two tour guides were outside and invited us in. We had a great tour of this house which was built as a summer house in Frankford– and moved stone by stone to the current location in Fairmount Park. The Morrises of the Morris Arboretum donated it to the city in the 1920s. My favorite items in the house were old-fashioned women’s pockets, and a squirrel cage like this:

After Cedar Grove, we went over the the Japanese House and Garden, which Joe and I have been to before. Lilia was getting tired by this point, but still enjoyed feeding the Koi in the pond. I think Joe has pictures of that, maybe he can share in a comment here? After we explored the house, we walked around outside– there is a beautiful picnic grove that we will need to revisit.

The day out ended with a trip to Trader Joe’s for supplies (Lilia slept in her stroller), and last night, Joe made my new favorite meal, Collard Greens and Garlic with Sausage. Yum. For a day without any plans, it ended up being pretty nice

2006

2007

2008– it’s getting harder to hold her up!

Lyrics from a Woody Guthrie song I never heard:

Dear Mother, you’re gone to your heavenly home
Where heartaches can’t enter in…
Tonite all alone in spirit I’ve flown
To kiss my mother again.

–

Tuesday marks an unbelievable 16 years since I’ve seen my Mother. Funny that when she died, I didn’t notice how close it was to Mother’s Day, and how that would feel over the years.