Home of good eats! Nestled in the farming community of Ferndale California lies Poppa Joe’s on Main Street. I happened across this small town on my drive through Northern California and thought I’d stop in for some breakfast.
Poppa Joe’s is what every small town diner looked like back in the golden years. You just gotta love it!
Menu with plenty of options… oh what should I get?
The entire town was still closed for the morning but Poppa Joe’s was filled with locals having breakfast and playing poker. Yes. Poker. More on that in a bit.
I ordered the current special. Two eggs, hash browns, toast and a pancake. a MASSIVE pancake! yum! Poppa Joe’s also offers some nice home made jam to go along with your breakfast which was absolutely the best. So much better than the commercial store bought stuff.
Ok now about the Poker. Yes there was a Poker Room in the rear of the restaurant which I thought was pretty cool. As it turns out Joe “Poppa Joe” Alexandre opened up Poppa Joe’s after he retired from the dairy farming industry which is predominant here in this area. He wanted a Poker Room in the restaurant so that other retired dairy farmers could come and hang out with their friends. He called it a “day care for retired farmers”. Ha! A group of farmers will be here as early as 6am every morning to have their coffee and play poker.
Ferndale is a quaint, picturesque little town a bit off of the main highway but it’s definitely worth stopping in for breakfast and a game of poker.
I’m very glad I decided to venture off the main highway and visit Poppa Joe’s in Ferndale. The locals are very friendly and a little old Portuguese woman talked my ear off about the history of the town and how she immigrated to the U.S. when she was a child. These stories are the best and I could have listened to her all day long. It’s one thing to read about history but to actually hear it coming from someone who has lived it is something magical.A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.
VanUnity 