You don't have to stay home to enjoy good home-style cooking

Pictured in front of the restaurant located in Miner at 2517 E. Malone Ave., are, from left: Michael Smith, Denise Sprinkles, Sabrina Smith, Sheila Tubbs and Stacey Colgan.

SIKESTON - There may be a place for fast food, but Sheila Tubbs says more people today are looking for a bit of home cooking. She believes she is creating just the place where they can find that home-cooked fare without ever having to go home.

Tubbs and her son, Frankie Tubbs, have opened Frankie's Country Cooking at 2517 E. Malone Ave.

"We offer really good home-cooked food and that is what people seem to want," said Tubbs, pointing out that since their opening May 1 business has been very good.

The restaurant's menu reflects that country-style. There is a wide selection of hamburgers, salads, sandwiches and other items, but many of the customers opt for the daily breakfast and lunch buffets.

The breakfast buffet offers a large filling of bacon, sausage, homemade sausage gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, biscuits, grits, oatmeal and chocolate gravy.

The lunch buffet always features at least two meats, including fish every Friday. Tubbs said the rest of the selections are designed to complement the meats and these selections can range from ham and beans to macaroni with tomatoes to fried okra or squash. "It is whatever we think will go well together, but it always something different," she assured.

While the owners said they really haven't developed a speciality, their customers have already determined a list of favorites. Some of those include the restaurant's stuffed bell peppers and "they really love our catfish because we use our own formula for the breading," said Tubbs. "And everybody says we have the best sweet tea in town."

Chimes in waitress Sabrina Smith, "The chocolate gravy, they like that and they say our biscuits are the best they have eaten."

Explaining her mother taught her to cook, Tubbs said many of the recipes are family recipes while other times she may try a recipe once then adapt it to create her own special dish. But she adds a caution: "Home-cooked food takes time to prepare. This isn't something you whip out of can."

It was also her mother who was behind the opening of the restaurant, which seats some 60 people. Originally Tubbs and her mother, Frankie, opened the business, but her mother decided the operation was too much for her, Tubbs said. She sold her interest to Tubb's son, fortunately, also called Frankie. The younger Frankie now balances restaurant ownership with being a student at Bethel University in McKenzie, Tenn.

Tubbs emphasized she, her son and the staff of seven strive to provide quality country-style cooking and a friendly atmosphere for diners. The restaurant offers kids and senior specials and they are looking at developing a 99-cent menu, as well.

"Our prices are low," Tubbs said. "They may be even too low but the better the prices, the more people can afford to come eat here."

Frankie's Country Cookin' is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays. The restaurant is closed on Mondays.

There is drive-through and carry-out service offered. Reservations are accepted and can be made by calling 472-5181.