Jimmy's Review
Review of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies
Author: Brenda Harkins
Prepared for: Jimmy Collins
Owner Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pie
Jimmy’s Round- up Café has been in several locations in Oklahoma City, through the last 22 years. Jimmy Collins owner of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies consolidated all his locations a few years ago and has focused on only one location at 1301 S.W. 59th Street in Oklahoma City. This relatively small café is not located in a five-star dining location in Oklahoma City. It is a small locally owned and operated café where the service is good and the food is better. Jimmy’s Café’ & Fried Pies is open 7 days a week.
This is a family friendly, elderly friendly, work lunch friendly place to eat. The customers are as diverse as the menu. You may walk into this café and see a whole table of construction workers with their dirty boots and hard hats on, or you may see grandma pushing grandpa to a table in his wheel chair. At the same time you could see a family of six having a family meal with a daughter/grand-daughter who is about to get married. This is a place where anyone can eat and enjoy themselves regardless of what other agendas they are focused on.
The décor of Jimmy’s was just updated a year or so ago, with the remodel came the name change of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies. Jimmy did not remodel to the point of changing the country charm his place has to offer. The outside of the café has fresh paint and a very large inviting sign out front that has a new led screen that flashes messages of the specials of the day, which each day they have several. Directly under this large sign is a very nice well-kept flower garden area.
The interior walls are a light buckskin color with country coffee shop inspired decorative items on the walls, this is a little different direction from the cowboy décor before the remodel, but not so much of a change that you still get that “down home feeling” while you are dining. With the remodel process Jimmy did not replace the old but sturdy tables and chairs; I am sure the reason for this was not just to preserve the feeling of the café, but also for his elderly customer’s safety. Those sturdy tables and chairs, they just don’t make them like that anymore.
As a new customer you will most likely be met by Jimmy himself, I don’t think I have ever been in this café and Jimmy not there, if you are not sure what you would like to order Jimmy will gladly recommend something from his diverse menu. Jimmy will defiantly recommend to you, his hand breaded chicken fried steak or crunchy golden brown catfish. Jimmy’s Café also has about the best Bar-B-Q ribs in the south; they are made with Jimmy’s own secret rub. Some of the other food items offered and Jimmy takes great pride in, is his “grandmothers recipe” made from scratch dinner rolls, and for dessert, made from scratch fried pies or cinnamon rolls. If you are a breakfast person you can order omelets from the menu or build your own with a vast array of ingredients to choose from. If hotcakes or waffles are your breakfast of choice you can get those as well. You can have breakfast anytime of the day or night. And yes, they serve good old fashioned made from scratch fluffy biscuits which you can order with cream gravy. Other aspects of this business offered at Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies are they do catering and they have drive-thru accommodations.
Needless to say my family and I are regular customers of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies. I have enjoyed many selections from Jimmy’s menu. This is a review of the most recent visit at Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies.
My husband and I were met at the door by our waitress she told us we could sit anywhere we liked. Which I like being able to choose the location I want to sit in a restaurant. We chose our place and were quickly joined by our waitress asking for our drink order. We told her we wanted our drinks and were waiting on our son and daughter-in-law to join us so we would wait to order our food. This actually gave me time to look at all aspects of the café, and take mental notes of the operation as a whole.
As I sat there, I noticed they were not terribly busy at that time and one of the employees was sweeping the floor and cleaning the tables while another was filling the condiments on each table. Jimmy was there as usual overseeing the entire operation. The waitresses were neat in appearance their attire was very casual, they all had matching royal blue Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies t-shirts and blue jeans; their hair was restrained with a hair clip or ponytail holder. The cooks had the same matching t-shirts as the waitresses the one difference I noticed were they had black aprons and ball caps on. I made a trip to the restroom, after several cups of coffee while we waited on our son and daughter-in-law to join us. The restroom while it still has the old fixtures was neat, clean and smelled fresh.
We were finally ready to order and I ordered the 8oz steak with green beans and salad bar, the cost was $8.99. My son and husband ordered the large chicken fried steak, fried okra, French fries and gravy, $5.99 and our daughter-in-law ordered the roast beef with potatoes and corn, $6.99.
We were served a basket of the hot made from scratch dinner rolls, my son and daughter-in-law ate the first basket by themselves, their comment was “oh sorry they were just so good” of course when the waitress came to refill our drinks, she quickly returned with another basket of rolls for us. My steak, I had ordered it medium and it was cooked just as I ordered it and it was hot and seasoned so that I didn’t want or need steak sauce. The salad I prepared from the salad bar, the selections were not vast, although what was available looked tasty and fresh, and it was. The green beans I ordered were seasoned with bacon which always makes green beans better, not necessarily better for you, however. They were tasty. The hand breaded chicken fried steak my son and husband ordered the steak was so big it protruded off the sides of their plates; they both were able to cut this tender steak with a fork. They both agreed that was the best chicken fried steak they both had ever had. Not to mention the price of $5.99 was excellent. My daughter-in-law said her roast beef was very good, tender and she enjoyed and would eat there again.
This was my son and daughter-in-laws first visit to Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies (we have taken their children many times, and they love it). So, they wanted to try a fried pie, we ordered a coconut cream, when the fresh from the fryer pie arrived at the table it was peach. Our waitress came to see how we liked the pie and we told her it was peach not coconut cream, she quickly went and got a coconut cream pie and told us to share the peach one as well, “on the house.’ Although this was a mistake, our waitress handled it without even a thought of making it right for us which doesn’t always happen when you dine out and get something by mistake. Usually you have to tell the manager and wait for a decision to be made as to who was at fault for the error. Not this time, the waitress felt confident she could handle this herself and knew what Jimmy would want her to do.
Our total bill for the four of us was less than $50.00. Which I think is a bargain in this day and time.
Conclusion
Jimmy Collins, owner of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies has indeed built a quite unique business in this day of fast paced living.
My suggestions of improvement would be to promote the catering aspect of the business. It is something already offered I just don’t think there is enough focus on this avenue. The food is so good, and catering would be a way to share this good old fashion cooking flavor to a wider variety of people.
The drive-thru is something I would keep a close watch on and really figure if it truly is worth the man-power it takes to run a drive-thru and if it would be better to use the space for parking for dine in customers.
The location where is not a five-star dining area, I think is some of the charm of this small café. I at first glance thought a change might be profitable but after a closer look I am not sure that is the case.
The one menu item I don’t think gets enough exposure is the fantastic homemade cinnamon rolls. I think the display of them and the homemade fried pies could be better. There needs to be display forms and display paper dollies to dress up the large glass display case.
Building on the unique flavor of grandmother and home and emphasizing this is a great appeal and will enhance this good business and transform it to a great business.
Author: Brenda Harkins
Prepared for: Jimmy Collins
Owner Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pie
Jimmy’s Round- up Café has been in several locations in Oklahoma City, through the last 22 years. Jimmy Collins owner of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies consolidated all his locations a few years ago and has focused on only one location at 1301 S.W. 59th Street in Oklahoma City. This relatively small café is not located in a five-star dining location in Oklahoma City. It is a small locally owned and operated café where the service is good and the food is better. Jimmy’s Café’ & Fried Pies is open 7 days a week.
This is a family friendly, elderly friendly, work lunch friendly place to eat. The customers are as diverse as the menu. You may walk into this café and see a whole table of construction workers with their dirty boots and hard hats on, or you may see grandma pushing grandpa to a table in his wheel chair. At the same time you could see a family of six having a family meal with a daughter/grand-daughter who is about to get married. This is a place where anyone can eat and enjoy themselves regardless of what other agendas they are focused on.
The décor of Jimmy’s was just updated a year or so ago, with the remodel came the name change of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies. Jimmy did not remodel to the point of changing the country charm his place has to offer. The outside of the café has fresh paint and a very large inviting sign out front that has a new led screen that flashes messages of the specials of the day, which each day they have several. Directly under this large sign is a very nice well-kept flower garden area.
The interior walls are a light buckskin color with country coffee shop inspired decorative items on the walls, this is a little different direction from the cowboy décor before the remodel, but not so much of a change that you still get that “down home feeling” while you are dining. With the remodel process Jimmy did not replace the old but sturdy tables and chairs; I am sure the reason for this was not just to preserve the feeling of the café, but also for his elderly customer’s safety. Those sturdy tables and chairs, they just don’t make them like that anymore.
As a new customer you will most likely be met by Jimmy himself, I don’t think I have ever been in this café and Jimmy not there, if you are not sure what you would like to order Jimmy will gladly recommend something from his diverse menu. Jimmy will defiantly recommend to you, his hand breaded chicken fried steak or crunchy golden brown catfish. Jimmy’s Café also has about the best Bar-B-Q ribs in the south; they are made with Jimmy’s own secret rub. Some of the other food items offered and Jimmy takes great pride in, is his “grandmothers recipe” made from scratch dinner rolls, and for dessert, made from scratch fried pies or cinnamon rolls. If you are a breakfast person you can order omelets from the menu or build your own with a vast array of ingredients to choose from. If hotcakes or waffles are your breakfast of choice you can get those as well. You can have breakfast anytime of the day or night. And yes, they serve good old fashioned made from scratch fluffy biscuits which you can order with cream gravy. Other aspects of this business offered at Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies are they do catering and they have drive-thru accommodations.
Needless to say my family and I are regular customers of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies. I have enjoyed many selections from Jimmy’s menu. This is a review of the most recent visit at Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies.
My husband and I were met at the door by our waitress she told us we could sit anywhere we liked. Which I like being able to choose the location I want to sit in a restaurant. We chose our place and were quickly joined by our waitress asking for our drink order. We told her we wanted our drinks and were waiting on our son and daughter-in-law to join us so we would wait to order our food. This actually gave me time to look at all aspects of the café, and take mental notes of the operation as a whole.
As I sat there, I noticed they were not terribly busy at that time and one of the employees was sweeping the floor and cleaning the tables while another was filling the condiments on each table. Jimmy was there as usual overseeing the entire operation. The waitresses were neat in appearance their attire was very casual, they all had matching royal blue Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies t-shirts and blue jeans; their hair was restrained with a hair clip or ponytail holder. The cooks had the same matching t-shirts as the waitresses the one difference I noticed were they had black aprons and ball caps on. I made a trip to the restroom, after several cups of coffee while we waited on our son and daughter-in-law to join us. The restroom while it still has the old fixtures was neat, clean and smelled fresh.
We were finally ready to order and I ordered the 8oz steak with green beans and salad bar, the cost was $8.99. My son and husband ordered the large chicken fried steak, fried okra, French fries and gravy, $5.99 and our daughter-in-law ordered the roast beef with potatoes and corn, $6.99.
We were served a basket of the hot made from scratch dinner rolls, my son and daughter-in-law ate the first basket by themselves, their comment was “oh sorry they were just so good” of course when the waitress came to refill our drinks, she quickly returned with another basket of rolls for us. My steak, I had ordered it medium and it was cooked just as I ordered it and it was hot and seasoned so that I didn’t want or need steak sauce. The salad I prepared from the salad bar, the selections were not vast, although what was available looked tasty and fresh, and it was. The green beans I ordered were seasoned with bacon which always makes green beans better, not necessarily better for you, however. They were tasty. The hand breaded chicken fried steak my son and husband ordered the steak was so big it protruded off the sides of their plates; they both were able to cut this tender steak with a fork. They both agreed that was the best chicken fried steak they both had ever had. Not to mention the price of $5.99 was excellent. My daughter-in-law said her roast beef was very good, tender and she enjoyed and would eat there again.
This was my son and daughter-in-laws first visit to Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies (we have taken their children many times, and they love it). So, they wanted to try a fried pie, we ordered a coconut cream, when the fresh from the fryer pie arrived at the table it was peach. Our waitress came to see how we liked the pie and we told her it was peach not coconut cream, she quickly went and got a coconut cream pie and told us to share the peach one as well, “on the house.’ Although this was a mistake, our waitress handled it without even a thought of making it right for us which doesn’t always happen when you dine out and get something by mistake. Usually you have to tell the manager and wait for a decision to be made as to who was at fault for the error. Not this time, the waitress felt confident she could handle this herself and knew what Jimmy would want her to do.
Our total bill for the four of us was less than $50.00. Which I think is a bargain in this day and time.
Conclusion
Jimmy Collins, owner of Jimmy’s Café & Fried Pies has indeed built a quite unique business in this day of fast paced living.
My suggestions of improvement would be to promote the catering aspect of the business. It is something already offered I just don’t think there is enough focus on this avenue. The food is so good, and catering would be a way to share this good old fashion cooking flavor to a wider variety of people.
The drive-thru is something I would keep a close watch on and really figure if it truly is worth the man-power it takes to run a drive-thru and if it would be better to use the space for parking for dine in customers.
The location where is not a five-star dining area, I think is some of the charm of this small café. I at first glance thought a change might be profitable but after a closer look I am not sure that is the case.
The one menu item I don’t think gets enough exposure is the fantastic homemade cinnamon rolls. I think the display of them and the homemade fried pies could be better. There needs to be display forms and display paper dollies to dress up the large glass display case.
Building on the unique flavor of grandmother and home and emphasizing this is a great appeal and will enhance this good business and transform it to a great business.