Though regrettably overlooked in our recent list of iconic Palm Beach County restaurants, Mom’s Kitchen in Greenacres definitely fits the bill, having been around for at least 40 years.
This classic restaurant has been in the same location on Lake Worth Road since 1980 and is now in its fifth decade of serving delicious meals. (While several of the staff have been around for decades, Mom’s is operating under a “new” owner, who bought the place in 2021. )
The menu at Mom’s is massive and incredibly diverse. Owner Alison Cohen said “At Mom’s Kitchen you can have anything from biscuits and gravy to duck à l’orange.”
When she says anything, it’s not much of an exaggeration. The breakfast and lunch menu alone is eight pages.
All dishes served at Mom’s Kitchen follow the house slogan of “Homemade from the Heart.” Again this is not hyperbole as Cohen stresses that they make everything from scratch including all of their sauces.
Not surprisingly, people come to Mom’s Kitchen for home cooked faves
Their turkey dinner is one of the most popular dishes. The turkey is roasted in-house and carved to order. Their rigatoni ala vodka, meatloaf, pot roast and even liver and onions are all favorites as well.
On the breakfast side, the country fried steak with sausage gravy is a huge hit along with the two egg breakfast which garners some of its popularity with the choice of meat option that includes steak, ham, chorizo, corned beef hash and even pork chops.
There are also three-egg omelettes, pancakes, waffles and much more. One specialty dish is the strawberry cheesecake waffle. It’s made with strawberry waffle batter and is served with strawberries on top, cheesecake icing and whipped cream.
Handling a menu as diverse as Mom’s Kitchen requires serious skill.
Though executive chef Paulin Ornelas has been at the restaurant for the past 29 years and proven his mettle, Cohen said that when hiring a new chef a “working interview is always required.” Taking a page from the movie “The Hundred-Foot Journey” starring Helen Mirren, Cohen says she always has them make her an omelette.
“We customize everything for our customers. You gotta have mad skills if you’re going to work at Mom’s Kitchen,” she said.
That vetting process has definitely paid off as Cohen beamed “I have amazing talent in the kitchen.” She says she also has top-notch servers, some who’ve been there over 20 years.
That hard work and dedication is not overlooked. Cohen said that she celebrates all their birthdays and everyone gets a year-end bonus. “I treat them all like family.”
Cohen bought Mom’s Kitchen in February 2021 with then fiancé Greg Tria. She said they’d eaten at the local landmark a few years earlier and were so impressed that Tria remarked that he’d “love to own a restaurant like this.”
As fate would have it, the owners were also their neighbors, and Cohen joked that it took several years to get them to sell — at a historic rough patch in the industry.
“Who buys a restaurant during Covid… crazy people,” Cohen joked.
Tria worked the front of the restaurant and Alison, who was also working as an executive assistant to a high-net-worth individual, handled the financial aspects.
Sadly, Tria died in November 2023. Cohen said he was an incredibly kind and gregarious person and that, though they’d only owned Mom’s Kitchen less than three years, his funeral service was standing room only and packed with Mom’s customers.
Now the sole owner of Mom’s Kitchen, Cohen said she dropped her day job and now runs the entire operation.
Though she said it’s not an easy job by any stretch she’s focused on keeping Mom’s Kitchen “A super-friendly, welcoming place. That’s very important to me, number one.”
That drive is paying off. Cohen says they have customers who have been coming to the restaurant for a lifetime. “They came here as children and have come back with their children and grandchildren.”
Mom’s Kitchen in Greenacres
What: Mom’s Kitchen
Where: 7478 Lake Worth Road, Greenacres
Hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday; 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday
Information: facebook.com/momskitchenlakeworth; instagram.com/momskitchen
Eddie Ritz is a journalist at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at eritz@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Greenacres landmark restaurant serves everything from “biscuits and gravy to duck a l’orange”
Reporting by Eddie Ritz, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
