Aretha Frankenstein's

With a name like Aretha Frankenstein's you know you are in for an offbeat experience, and such is the case when you eat at this quirky little restaurant in the North Shore of Chattanooga.

We discovered Aretha Frankenstein's several years ago when we were staying in a VRBO rental just down the street. We attempted a visit at the time, but the incredibly LONG lines deterred us.


On several different occasions we have driven by in hopes of a shorter wait, but to no avail.

More recently we ate at Crocket's Breakfast Camp in Gatlinburg where we tried the Aretha Frankenstein pancakes that were featured on the menu. The pancakes were amazing, so I decided we needed to make another attempt to try the local restaurant.

Daniel and I recently had the opportunity when Daniel was home on a weekday. After dropping Jack at preschool, we bundled Isaac up and headed down to North Shore.

Luckily for us, a cold Thursday morning is a perfect time to visit this popular joint. The decor matched the name of the diner with skeletons hanging from chandeliers and posters of cult classics plastered on the walls. 

I had the eggs and bacon with a pancake on the side while Daniel had a chocolate chip waffle. The food was all delicious. The restaurant also boasts an espresso bar, which I should have tried because the plain coffee I had was awful. I could smell how bad it was when they brought it to the table but tried to choke it down anyways. Moral of the story: Food = Fantastic, Coffee = Terrible.

The morning we were there, the speakers were blasting heavy metal music (the kind where the band just screams, and you are pretty sure obscenities are assaulting your ears). For ten in the morning it was a jolt to our senses, but mostly it made us feel old.

I don't know if we will be back. At this point in our life, Crocket's Breakfast Camp is more our speed (plus Aretha Frankenstein's really isn't that kid friendly, though they did have one booster chair for little ones).

On a side note, I recently picked up some Aretha Frankenstein's Pancake Mix from a local grocer and it tastes about as good as the real deal (though I have no idea how they make their pancakes 1-inch think... even with their mix, mine only were about 0.25-inches thick).

Biscuit Love

When we first became parents, I read a lot about the importance of continuing to date your husband (even writing about it here). Weekly if possible. In theory, I think this is a fantastic idea, but our reality never seems to measure up to that standard.

 

Daniel and I have had plenty of time to date (10+years if you include our dating years), so we don't feel too guilty when current dates tend to lean more toward "family" dates. Part of that has been changing our expectations and being ok with this. More often than not our alone dates include a bowl of ice cream and Netflix. I think you just do what you have to do and don't get hung up on a date being leaving your house, without kids. I mean, we even took our kids on our recent 13th anniversary trip.

But if we have the opportunity to go out, sans kids, we try to jump on it. Holidays tend to work in our favor in this regard. Our family loves the chance to hang out with our boys and who are we to turn down free baby sitting?

Most recently we were able to sneak off on a brunch and furniture shopping date. We left our boys with Daniel's sister and headed out to grab breakfast for lunch (my fave). We had initially planned to go to The Pancake Pantry but the line was wrapped around the outside of the building (and it was raining). So instead we found ourselves wandering over to the Gulch for a little Biscuit Love.

Biscuit Love also had a wait, but if you were willing to sit at the bar (we were, we didn't have kids!), you could get in immediately.

According to Nashville Guru, The "East Nasty" and "Southern Benny" were the dishes to get. And they did not disappoint.

Getting away was just what we needed – uninterrupted conversation, followed by time browsing local stores for a new dining table that we are dreaming about.

Our next date may not happen until Easter (hopefully sooner), but until that time we savor these moments together and embrace the days that our dates involve our whole family or just the two of us, on the couch after our kids are in bed.