If you want a square meal -- especially one that includes brisket -- go to Harley's Old Thyme Cafe. For 20 years this small, South Anchorage eatery has specialized in a friendly atmosphere and home-style cooking ("like Mom tries to make," according to the menu).
Original owners Harley and Margaret Livingston retired and sold the place a couple of years ago. Fortunately, they left behind their recipe for brisket. Smoked for 12 hours and served with a tangy, tomato-y sauce, this meat is marvelously tender and flavorful no matter how you order it:
- Brisket plate ($10.65), served with three side dishes (more on those in a minute)
- Brisket burger ($9.50), a hill of meat and fixings on a bun plus one side
- Brisket dip ($10.95), on a hoagie roll with one side
- "H.B. Scrapwich" ($9.50), bits and pieces of brisket served open-faced on bread with one side
- "This Ain't Chili" ($9.50), brisket bits with pinto beans, cheese and onions plus a side of tortilla chips and salsa
What is chili, however, is Harley's Texas-style bowl of red (cup $4.40, bowl $7.25), made with zero beans, ground rather than diced beef and a blend of spices that deliver a pleasant tingle of flavor, not pain.
This too comes in several incarnations, my new favorite being the "Chili Mac Lunch" ($9.80) -- a ramekin of house-made macaroni and cheese with a dollop of chili and served with two sides and a house-made cornbread stick. The smoothness of the pasta sauce (I spy Velveeta!) blends delightfully with the topping's mildly spicy kick.
Or try the Frito Pie ($7.75), corn chips topped with chili, cheddar cheese and minced white onion; the chili cheese fries ($9.95), a platter of pommes frites covered with bacon and cheddar and jack cheeses plus a layer of chili; the Texas chili cheeseburger ($9.95), served with cheddar, onions, jalapenos, lettuce and tomato and one side; and the Coney Reindeer ($9.95), a reindeer sausage served with chili, cheddar and onions plus a side.
Another standout dish is the pan-fried chicken cutlet ($10.65), a chicken breast pounded flat, panko-breaded and served with a dollop of sausage gravy. The chicken was juicy and the panko delightfully crisp. Since the serving is huge and the dish comes with cornbread and three sides, it's basically two meals for the price of one.
About those sides: Diners select from among 22 options, including black-eyed peas, rice, fried okra, barbecue beans, mashed potatoes, coleslaw and, amusingly, banana pudding and peach cobbler. If you're not a big meat eater, choose the Veggie Plate ($8.95), which is four side dishes plus cornbread.
The six-page menu carries quite a mix of foodstuffs, including but not limited to fried pickles, po'boys, basket lunches (steak or pig fingers, shrimp, clams, chicken), catfish, quesadillas, 13 kinds of burgers, a reindeer sausage Philly, chicken-fried steak and "chicken-fried chicken," pulled pork, hot sandwiches (meatloaf, turkey, chicken fried steak and others), buffalo wings and Harley's version of a Hawaiian dish called Loco Moco (hamburger patty and brown gravy atop white rice topped with two eggs).
Not sure what to order? Ask! The servers are friendly and personable and will invariably offer to set aside a piece of that day's pie for you. Although the new owners don't make their own crusts, the way Harley did, the filling of the chocolate cream pie ($3.95) was cloud-light and cocoa-rich; the real whipped cream on top made the confection taste like a chocolate sundae.
The restaurant is very kid-friendly. You'll often see large families taking up two tables, or tired-looking new parents with car seats parked in their booths. The child's menu is pretty basic: burger, fried chicken breast, grilled cheese, fish sticks or macaroni and cheese plus a side and beverage for $6.85. If these simple foods don't appeal to your kids, just let 'em eat off your plate.
The breakfasts at Harley's are made for sharing, too. I invariably bring home at least half of Big Momma's Big Pancake Stack ($10.95): three fluffy buttermilk flapjacks, hash browns, two eggs and four slices of bacon. Big Daddy's Big French Toast Stack ($11.25) features turkey sausage in between the toast. (You can also get elements served separately vs. stacked.)
Traditional breakfasts -- oatmeal, biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage, corned beef hash and the like -- are available for $5.55 to $10.25. Want to branch out? Take a chance on dishes like the Velveeta and reindeer sausage scramble, the Harley Bennie (chicken-fried pork loin and eggs on an English muffin with sausage gravy), beef tamales and eggs or brisket and eggs.
It keeps coming back to brisket. Which is as it should be: Meat smoked that long and that lovingly can be enjoyed at any meal. At Harley's, it is.
Donna Freedman, a former Anchorage Daily News reporter and reviewer, is a staff writer at Money Talks News and blogs at DonnaFreedman.com.
Harley's Old Thyme Cafe
Hours: 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday
Location: 7550 Old Seward Highway
Contact: 349-8878 and harleysotcafe.com
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