>Indianapolis, Indiana
MAMA MIA! BLIND FOLD PLEASE.
The brightly colored converted retro service station that houses Good Morning Mama’s Cafe sits on the lot just a few doors down from its big sister Mama Carolla’s. Like a younger sibling desperately wanting a funky style all its own, the place looks like it was thrown together by Punky Brewster. Owners Carole and Howard Leuer did however build a family oriented neighborhood place open Tuesday through Sunday that serves an affordable tasty casual breakfast and lunch.
It’s a strange looking place…a combination of Key West meets Disney cruz ship (or something like that). A dated looking style of hand painted murals, cultural icons and food advertisements decorate the bright yellow cinder block walls as fabric banners of bluebirds hang down over tables adorned with repro fiesta ware…its really NOT pretty. Then again, the screaming kids running everywhere seemed to love it!
The decent sized breakfast menu (menu available here) has the usual items you’d expect to see as well as a few carefully chosen comfort foods such as the Loco Moco (a traditional Hawaiian rice bowl with a beef patty, brown gravy and egg), the 1940′s (a combination of Spam, Cheeze Whiz, onions and marinara), Elvis’ Favorite (Peanut Butter and Bacon sandwich…with a banana if you choose) and a few dishes with beautiful salt cured pork belly (though they mispelled Pancetta on the menu…uh…twice).
I TOLD you this place was trying desperately hard to be different.
The Loco Moco was nice though the brown gravy tasted a little processed and it needed a splash of hot sauce. Even when ordered with a broken yolk there could have been a touch of gravy added to the bottom to help wet everything down when mixed together. I’d try it again but with spam instead. The Mexican breakfast tacos (substituted with chorizo) were great. They were almost dry and could have used a wetter pico de gallo but otherwise were full of flavor. The service was fast, the food was inexpensive and tasty and the coffee not too bad either…everything you’d want in a bright as the sun mind numbing converted car garage time capsule 
