What: Mom’s Restaurant
Address: Ohio 123, Franklin
Phone number: (937) 746-0150
Opens: Thursday
Hours: 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 5 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
FRANKLIN — Mom’s Restaurant - a popular diner known for its country cooking, reasonable prices and the friendly smile from its owner - is being torn down one piece at a time.
The 592 coffee cups have been taken off their hooks and moved across town.
More than 9,000 one dollar bills that were written on and stapled to the ceiling — a tradition started by Jess Wilson in 1985 — have been pulled off and will be donated to Miami Valley Hospital in Dayton in memory of Hilda Ratliff’s daughter, Connie Ratliff, who died of kidney failure in November 2008.
And the University of Kentucky memorabilia — autographed photos of Wildcat legends, coaches and players — have been reframed and are ready to be hung.
Now all 70-year-old Hilda Ratliff — who some would say should be preparing for retirement, not moving a restaurant — has to do is start making her famous biscuits and gravy in batches.
Ratliff made her last skillet of gravy recently at Mom’s at the corner of Ohio 741, 122 and 123. The restaurant, located where the Ohio Department of Transportation told her almost five years ago that was going to be needed for a $4.9 million intersection improvement project, has closed. Now it’s moving three miles away into a former restaurant space in the BP gas station on Ohio 123.
Ever since the announcement was made a few weeks ago, patrons have flooded Mom’s wanting one more plate of biscuits and gravy, one more meat loaf dinner, one “last supper,” Ratliff said with a smile.
Now she hopes those loyal customers — the ones who have enjoyed her cooking and companionship for the past 37 years — will follow her to the new location.
“I just can’t wait,” Ratliff said recently at a ribbon-cutting. “I want to get this show of the road.”
The new location will feature 100 seats — twice as many as the former Mom’s — expanded hours of operation, from 68 to 95 per week, and three new employees.
And because the location is three miles closer to Interstate 75 and the truck stop near that exit, Ratliff expects business to increase dramatically.
To prepare for the expected crowd, Ratliff said she will make three times the gravy, from 25 gallons to 75 gallons.
Sonny Lewis, city manager of Franklin, said he couldn’t think of a more appropriate restaurant than Mom’s to move into the city, which already offers several fast-food options on Ohio 123. He called Mom’s “a destination point.”
Doug Pelfrey, a former kicker for the Cincinnati Bengals, is part of the investment group that purchased the gas station/convenience store, remodeled it, and lured Ratliff to move her business there.
He called having the restaurant inside the store “a perfect fit” and “good for all involved.”
Ratliff added: “(Pelfrey) was looking for a drawing card and we are the card he needed.”
Late last week, most of the tables and booths were packed at Mom’s. The No. 1 question: When she was reopening?
Jerry and Barb Russell, of Lebanon, have been patronizing Mom’s for about 20 years. They’re concerned that the new location will have the “same feel” as the former location.
“This place,” Jerry Russell said, “is like coming home and you can’t beat that feeling.”
Contact this columnist at (513) 705-2842 or rmccrabb@coxohio.com.
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