I have been a bit reflective lately about how neat it is--the simple act of sitting in a restaurant and enjoying a meal together with the ones you love. A couple months ago my husband and I took our youngest daughter out to lunch while the older ones were at school. She was having the time of her life being served Sprite and a quesadilla by a waiter and she said to me, ” I love eating inside this store, Mommy!” It was the first time my sweet four year-old had eaten inside a restaurant since the pandemic hit and she is young enough that she didn’t have any memories of doing this before. While more and more people eat out at restaurants on a daily basis (usually take-out), it really got me thinking how cool some of our memories can be of eating together inside restaurants. They can hold such a special place in our hearts and bring back all sorts of nostalgic childhood memories.

I am someone that grew up in a small town with basically only a Pizza Hut and a local burger place and nowadays I find myself, like so many others, living in a suburban area with more restaurants in my area than people in my high school. The small town girl who only ate out a couple times a year with my family can find joy and something special in the most simple of restaurants. Here are a couple of my favorite types of restaurant memories--I bet that many of you will share similar experiences as me. 

Special-Occasion Restaurants

Growing up, a couple times a year members of my church would drive a couple hours to Boise to attend some services together and we’d always go to a buffet restaurant together afterwards to share a giant meal together. It wasn’t the greatest food by any means, but it fed the masses and we always had a great time at Chuck-A-Rama together :)

In our little family, my kids know I love Italian food so for years and years we have always gone to the Old Spaghetti Factory for mom’s birthday. That’s just a given! It’s the only time we eat there all year but we love it (of course always sitting in the train car, if possible!). My daughter this year chose for us to eat at Weinerschnitzel for her birthday so we had fun sitting around the table together, sharing laughs and crappy hot dogs. 

Comforting Food When away from Home

Sometimes I think about if I were to move halfway across the world how comforting it would be to find an American diner-type restaurant that served something like chicken pot pie or biscuits and gravy when I was having a bad day and feeling particularly homesick. It would make me feel peaceful in my heart and comforted.

Isn’t it incredible what the power of food can do? I have a friend from Lebanon who is so thankful she is able to find restaurants with delicious, authentic Lebanese food as well as local grocery stores that sell quality ingredients to make comforting food from home each week and feel close to her mom she is only able to see every few years. That is incredible!

Classic American Pizza Parlor

There is just something cool about finding a good local pizza place with the classic red and white gingham tablecloths, arcade games and abundant tv screens playing all the sports games on that evening. I think plenty of people in America can think of really happy memories from their childhood about places like this. The kind of place you celebrate with your whole little league baseball team after the last game of the season. It’s just a good place to grab a bite to eat with the ones you love and stay awhile. This is one of my favorite restaurants I always try to find wherever we live because those are the kinds of memories I like to make with my kids now too.

What are your favorite memories of eating at restaurants from your childhood? How about now? Have you lived far from home but experienced the joy of eating your local food and felt more at home? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.