As good as I remember

A year-long addition and renovation project at Compass Lake is finally coming to an end.  With two of our grandchildren in the middle of basketball season, Mary Lou and I often spend the night in Dothan to kill two birds with one stone, visiting the lake and attending a game.  We often find ourselves at the Doubletree Hotel on Ross Clark Circle since our schedule changes quickly and staying with our kids can be chaotic on a school night.

We recently had a little extra time for breakfast and decided to try Ray’s Restaurant on South Oates Street.  It is a well-known breakfast and lunch place that neither of us have visited since we were in high school, some 53 years ago.

I honestly do not remember too much about Ray’s from so long ago, although we both remember visiting occasionally before we left for college in 1972.  Mary Lou’s dad would visit over the years, usually sitting at the community table, more commonly known as “The Table of Knowledge”.  It still exists and on the particularly cold morning of our visit, the table was filled with an assortment of locals, dressed in everything from overalls to a suit and tie.

The decor is what you might expect for a decades old gathering place.  You will find a lot of football memorabilia, mostly Auburn and Alabama as you might expect.  Sports, particularly football, is a common topic at the Table of Knowledge.

There was a group of local police filling a table in the back corner.   Power crews were suited up for the upcoming Winter storm and filling up with plenty of eggs, biscuits and coffee.  The group skewed heavily male, though a few women braved the cold for an early breakfast.

The old timers obviously know their way around, often coming in and walking straight to the coffee pot.  Take out orders were being picked up, one for a large group.  One gentleman told the waitress not to wrap his breakfast biscuit up as he would eat it before he got to his truck in the parking lot.

The menu was what you might expect for an old southern breakfast place.  One thing they had on their menu was a description of the six different ways you could order your fried eggs.  My personal favorite has always been Over Medium, described as whites completely cooked with a runny yolk.  Waffle House would do well to put these descriptions on their own menu.

Over the years, Ray’s has been recognized as having the best breakfast in town.  They also received an award for having the top Peach Cobbler in the state of Alabama.  Maybe I will try that on my next visit.  

Mary Lou tried the Big Pancakes.  Take my word for it, do not order more than one for yourself.  If you get the stack of three you will be eating them all week.

I am not sure what I may have ordered back in my high school days, but the food was still tasty, the coffee hot, the waitresses friendly, and the company good.  Sounds like a place still worthy of a stop after all these years.

o0o

Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]