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One of our go to pass times in the off season is watching Diners Drive-Inns and Dives on the Food Network. So, the last time we needed to get some documents from my wife's home stomps of Kenosha, Wisconsin, instead of using the good ole' US mail, and because we needed an original document that faxing would have negated, we drove the two hours up to Kenosha and stopped in at Frank's Diner for breakfast; a Food Network favorite.

  
Photos from the shooting of Diners, Drive-Inns and Dives episode for the Food Network

"Two hours?!", you exclaim. "It's not two hours to Kenosha from Chicago!" It's two hours for us because we live south of I-80; way down below Joliet. So, for you city and suburb dwellers, it's just an eighth tank of gas there and back.

The trip for breakfast was well worth it. I know that staying in shape means that you must "eat to live, not live to eat", but sometimes the old habits find their way back. The food was awesome.

Frank's has rich local history as well as being one of the best kept places to be seen currently on the scale of what Billy Goat Tavern used to be, but without the strict bar ambiance. Frank's is a true diner. Being mainly a breakfast and lunch diner, they also have weekend dinners featuring a well known chef, as well as seasonal "bashes" that often include clearing out half their seating and bringing in a band of all things. "A band in a diner car?" Yep.

For breakfast I ordered a half of their Garbage Plate w/ Three Meats. Yes, half orders are available. Good thing because I couldn't even finish that. It filled an oval platter with scrambled eggs mixed with sliced potatoes, onions, grilled peppers, cheese, bacon, sausage and ham. And the toast was to die for; it was crusty, tender inside and rough cut, home-made sourdough type. They bake it right at the diner.

If you are a diner aficionado, by now you are thinking, "this CAN'T be the regular diner." Well, you're right and you're wrong. The diner was purchased brand new way back in the early 1900s from an east coast manufacturer and shipped by rail car to Kenosha. The Franks family had a team of horses pull it to its present location. So, a true diner car it certainly is.

It spent the bulk of its life serving folks in Kenosha in its original form complete with its single narrow isle with stools only, and a way too small cooking area on the other side of the narrow counter. Since then, they've added a very large kitchen in back, a small dining room and added another seating area that is next to the original diner structure.

With all of these additions, the constant crowd demands that they could double the seating capacity and still be undersized. The original wooden diner structure is still the main building. The wood grain is everywhere which echoes back the origin of the diner car of 1930s railroad fame. The giant grill is pretty much the focal point of the busy hubbub of every meal. Food slings in and out of their like a turn style at the county fair and I don't think a minute went by that there weren't at least a half dozen orders being scraped and turned with their signature hash browns.

With the fresh baked products like cinnamon rolls, bread and Danish, this place could do well as a franchise if such a thing were possible.

For the Best Breakfast in Chicago award, our Fave Eats forks are raised in tribute to Frank's Diner in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Franks Diner • 508 58th Street • Kenosha, WI 53140 • 262-657-1017