Our 1st Diners, Drive-ins and Dives Road Trip

About a month ago I came up with an idea and asked Todd if he was interested in doing it. I asked him if on a weekend that he wasn't traveling if he would want to take the motorcycle up to Kenosha WI and go to a restaurant that we saw on the Food Network show Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. I knew what his answer would be, but I asked anyway. So looking at our calendar we picked his pre-birthday weekend.
We got up at our normal morning time which is 4:45am, showered and got ready to go. It was rather on the cool side so we dressed in layers and took a backpack.
Todd Googled the route the day before and planned the route to avoid highways. We left a little after 6:00am and were very happy we dressed in layers. Since it was early most of the roads were empty which was nice.
After a few stops to check the map, getting gas and asking for directions because we couldn't find Rt41 we hit Franks restaurant at about 9:00am.

Before I show you any more pictures of Franks let me give you a little history about Franks:
In 1926, there was some real excitement in downtown Kenosha when six horses pulled Franks Diner to the spot where it stands today. The structure was built by the Jerry O'Mahoney company in New Jersey and shipped to Kenosha on a railroad flat car.
Anthony Franks, who first learned of the unique restaurant opportunity through a magazine article, paid $7,500 plus $325 in shipping charges to launch his business. He added a dining room in 1935 and a larger kitchen in the mid 1940s. The Franks family operated Franks Diner until 2001.
It is now owned and operated by Lynn Groleau and Chris Schwartz.

When you walk into the restaurant you will most likely be standing until there is a place available. There motto is, if you are in a hurry; don't come. You are standing behind the people eating at the counter and are told to move all the way down to the end and they will let you know when something opens up. I kind of wanted to sit at the counter but we ended up at a table. This was OK because our waiter was a trip. They are slightly sarcastic but in a fun way.
One of the items featured on the show was the Garbage. Todd and I both ordered the 1/2 Garbage with one meat no onion. The waiter kept insisting that I didn't want jalapenos; but I insisted that I did; I got my way.



The food is made on a griddle and the cook must work on 6 or more "Garbages" at one time. Both Todd and I thought it was rather neat to actually see someone that was featured on TV live doing what they did on TV. The 1/2 garbage was awesome I thought it was going to be on the greasy side but it wasn't. A 1/2 was enough that we didn't need lunch and possibly could have skipped dinner too.
This place is definitely a dive and I would go back again anytime.
We got done eating at 10:00am and headed to Uke's Harley Davidson shop in Kenosha

where Todd picked up a t-shirt for his collection.
On the way home we found 41 so it didn't take us as long to get home and as it did to get up to Kenosha. We ended up getting home just a little after 1:30pm.
I can't wait to plan another trip to a Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that we saw on the show.