The Palace of Franklinton Louisiana

The great aspect about small out-of-the-way towns is that the mom-n-pop places can hold their own against the competition.  They were there before the chains arrived and the population was there before the chains arrived.  So the locals tend to go to where they always went.  And if a new mom-n-pop place opens up, they migrate there as well.  Franklinton is one of those small towns.

The Palace of Franklinton is one of those restaurants.  Obviously once a drive-in restaurant, most of their breakfast customers dine in now.  Just take LA-16 east from Amite off of I-55 forever and you will get to one of the great mom-n-pop capitals of Louisiana.  Or just go north on LA-25 from I-12 in Covington to get there.  Ask for directions to Main Street once you arrive in Franklinton or consult your GPS.

My brother Joe lives in Franklinton and put me to the great breakfast at the Palace.  This is our regular joint for breakfast when I'm visiting him.  The locals like this restaurant.  Though the place hardly resembles a palace, you will eat like kings and queens here.


Eggs and Bacon Plate:

Warning: that's a double order of bacon that my brother gets, and it's worth the extra bucks.  The bacon is cooked perfect.  No need to ask for crisp, not burnt here.  What you see is how the bacon always comes out.  And you can get the eggs anyway you want.  I always order them over-easy and that's how they're delivered to the table.


Biscuits:

All breakfasts plates come with bread of some sort, but order the biscuits.  They come out pre-buttered. the outside is crisp and the inside is flaky in the southern tradition of biscuits.


Biscuits & Gravy:

Great cream gravy on even greater biscuits.  I get the sausage paddies to go with them.  See the shiny gleam in the paddies.  That's the grease.  Love that grease.


Great Grits:

Pictured above are their cheese grits.  The grits here are some of the best that I have had anywhere in the south.  They are thick enough to pass the pepper test without separating, and Joe loves to load his grits with pepper.  But they are creamy as if they were the slow 30-minute grits.  A great dish is a bowl of cheese grits and an order of bacon.  Crumble up the bacon in the grits for a cholesterol treat.  Carbs and fats, doesn't get any better than that for breakfast.