#1 Breakfast Favorite in the City-Run to Rosaria’s!

So, while waiting for the red light to change at the corner of Pleasant and Plymouth Saturday, I had time to take in all the fast foodie joints along the way.  The sea gulls must love Plymouth Ave. The top of the Avenue starts off with KFC, Boston Market, D’Angelos (no photo as a guy in a passing car looked mad to be in my camera frame), Honey Dew, 99, Applebees, Burger King, MacDonald’s- and I probably missed a few whizzing by. And all of this is before you even get to Rodman Street- our destination for Rosaria’s.  First, there really IS a Rosaria (put the accent on the second syllable). She and at least one daughter rule the grill at the little corner eatery at Rodman and Lowell streets.  A native had to show me this place, and it is a real local secret.  The food is so good that it is easy to understand why the neighborhood folks don’t want a lot of ravenous tourists and foreigners taking up their table space!

Okay, so parking is plentiful along Lowell Street, and there are a few folks lounging comfortably in front of the restaurant. I think the family lives behind the restaurant as brightly-colored flower boxes and cozy curtains announce that homey look.  Then you enter the counter area where about 8 stools are filled and there is a television softly announcing the Biden-Obama ticket in the background.  Everybody there looks as if they eat there every day of their lives-one big, extended family.  All along the walls are adorable kitchen-y touches, a clock that looks like a toaster, another clock which is a coffee cup- sort of that 1940’s fun homemaker stuff like Leave it to Beaver’s Mom used to have in the kitchen. But the first thing you notice is that the place is SPOTLESS. Nothing is out of place. With all the grease flying around, there is not a spot anywhere, even the signs are pristine.

The place was jumping- Saturday morning between 10-11 a.m. I would bet half of Fall River is having breakfast in a restaurant, and the other half is thinking about it.  But Rosaria’s is Pancake Mecca, Flapjack Heaven, Home of the Better Batter- so who cares if you have to wait 40 minutes to get the object of your obsession? I sat on my stool caressing a large cranberry juice and watched the A-Team in action at the grill.

The key to any successful high-traffic restaurant is ORGANIZATION. Without it, the food suffers, the customers get tired of waiting, the waitstaff is snarly, and chaos reigns supreme. Rosaria’s has it down to a motion-efficient science. I had a great view of the kitchen and grill and never have 4 gals done so much cooking for so many so fast. There is one motherly-looking lady whom I took to be Rosaria, and three lean, youthful, and efficient gals, one of whom was a daughter of Rosaria’s. They are wearing immaculate jeans and cool cotton “muscle shirts” of bright colors and sensible shoes.  What follows is a veritable BALLET of kitchen choreography.  There’s no bumping into each other, no spills, no hits, no misses. Each member of the drill team sails in and out, balancing 4-5 dinner plates loaded, -then pivots, glides and exits as another twirls in with sheets of fresh orders, while yet another scrapes down what must be the cleanest industrial-sized grill in New England. I lost count of how many times it was cleaned, scraped, re-”Pammed” and made ready for the next onslaught. Did I say this place was spotless?  The back room is the main dining area and a gargantuan mob, all together, had descended as I arrrived.  My waitress, daughter of the Remarkable Rosaria, visited my place at the counter frequently clucking apologies and smiling hopefully.  I could see her checking my order in its place in line above the head of the GrillMaster. I appreciated that and was determined to be late to my appointment, because these ladies were hustling for my breakfast. If there were an Olympics catagory for Grilling and Serving (maybe a relay)-this team would get the GOLD for the USA-hands down.

While I wait, I check out the food everybody else is gnoshing and tune in and out to conversations.  I watch the grill action and notice the loaves of bread slices are all stacked like playing cards neatly by the toaster, a rich tub of room-temp butter with a rubber spatula at the ready hovers nearby, and all the tools of the trade are at hand.  Everything is efficiently organized.  No wonder the toastmaster can deal out 20 pieces of perfectly buttered toast like a Las Vegas cardsharp! While one of the Paragons of Perfection takes an order her hands automatically straighten the countertop, replace a menu, tidy the salt and pepper shakers. You can part your hair in the countertop. Nobody’s unsightly breakfast remnants stare at you- no oozy egg yellows, no dribbly coffee cups. Amazing. My daughters have yet to figure out where the dishwasher is located. I wonder if can adopt Rosaria’s?

Then- the cakes arrive. I watched them on the grill being toasted to the perfect shade of honey gold, and flipped only once when they were bubbled up. I had to ask- what was the secret?  Water. Just a little water added to the batter. Who knew?

The edges were thin and lacey- the centers tender as a first kiss, with little sighs of steam gently escaping.  I had asked for them “to go” as I was running late, but I opened my styrofoam box and decided on my priorities- cakes FIRST! Just looks at these cakes- fine-pored, not flannel-y, tender, not tough, thin but yet substantial. They go down like a whisper, so buttery that syrup is not even needed. You can get as many as you want, – plain, or fancy ones like walnut, pumpkin, berry, chocolate chip, etc. But always get them plain, who needs to gild the lily?  The bacon was a lovely accompaniment, grilled nicely and not flattened and dried out to crisps.

Five stars for Rosaria’s- 10 more for the cooks and unlimited stars for the pancakes. Sheer Heaven.  They open at 5:30 a.m.