Hello, hashbrowns.

For the past couple months I’ve driven past Jenny’s Cafe five mornings a week. I’ve been tempted to pull in on a few occasions, but mornings in my life are times of turmoil where breakfast consists of Kashi granola bars and lukewarm mugs of coffee – on a good day.

And, truthfully, I have a few lingering memories of too-late nights spent huddled around the tables of this establishment when it used to be Denny’s, and, since not all lingering memories are pleasant, I’ve not beaten myself up too badly about the chronic recent drive-bys. Plus, over the years this place has been this and that and the other, and I’ve never been tempted to slip in to see what was going on inside, so, really, I asked myself, “Why start tempting fate now?”

Well, last Sunday we were enjoying a rare lazy day. A day when the sun was shining, the air was crisp and all the stuff on the to-do list was perfectly happy waiting for a while. As luck would have it, this day landed us in Jenny’s neighborhood. As luck would also have it, we approached the café from a new angle and noticed a sign on the side of the building that was hard to resist … Best Hashbrowns in Town!

I’m pretty sure signs like this are put up so people like me will stop in their tracks and say, “I’ll be the judge of that.” Let me just say, these signs are a thing of brilliance.

You can probably guess what happened immediately following our reading of said sign. Brakes applied. Steering wheel jerked. Tires squealed. Car parked. Café door opened. Game on.

Holy macaroni. Walking into this place on Sunday morning was like walking into this place at 3 a.m. on any given Saturday in the early 1990s. Only on this Sunday I wasn’t trying to hide minor-in-possession breath from the waitress. The tables, the floor, the counter and the coffee cups were – I swear – exactly the same tables, floor, counter and coffee cups I touched when I was a teenager. It was weird, but in a soothing and comfortable way – how often can you attach those adjectives to the word weird?

Anyway, about those hashbrowns … downright delicious. They reminded me of my Grandpa’s morning potatoes – more than a hint of butter flavor; more chewy than crispy; more substance than expected. The fact that they shared a plate with some damn tasty bacon was a thing of beauty … a thing of beauty that cleared my mind of all those crummy post-high school memories and left me thinking only one thing: My hectic mornings might have to get used to a pit stop.

You’ll find Jenny’s Cafe at 1412 W. Second, on the corner of Second and Maple, downtown. They’re open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.