One of our goals at Offbeat Eats for the last few years has been to try and visit a bunch of those places that we’ve driven by several times and always thought to ourselves, “We should stop there.” Well, we’ve tried to be better about actually stopping at those places. In this case, our drives to the east often take us through the nice old mill town of Franklin, NH. If it’s around lunch or dinner, we’ve already reviewed two great places in Franklin, Broken Spoon and Vulgar Brewing Company, that we really enjoy, but we still hadn’t really done breakfast in Franklin. A recent trip through there at 8am, however, gave me good reason to stop by Wyatt’s Family Restaurant, on the west bank of the Pemigewasset River right before it merges with the Winnipesaukee River to form the Merrimack River.
Wyatt’s is fairly quiet and unassuming from the outside, a fact not helped that their signage appears to be two several-year-old banners that are starting to fade. But the restaurant inhabits two adjacent storefronts in the building, making for two large dining rooms and a serving counter, and it’s a much more inviting space inside than out.
You can’t help but notice that the place is popular with the locals, with a healthy crowd on a Saturday morning. You don’t see a lot of “Family Restaurants” any more, but that’s what this is, with a nice selection of diner food, cozy tables, and enough menu options for kids that there are indeed quite a few families enjoying the place. The staff is quite good as well, and while there are only a few folks waiting tables, they bring their A game, efficiently taking orders, delivering food, and refilling coffee.
Being breakfast, I decided to go for one of my most-common orders these days, a hash Benedict, since it’s a simple dish but a great way to see how the kitchen is doing. The version at Wyatt’s is a particularly good version. A decent hash (although not as good as the hash from The Bristol Diner down the road in Bristol, which remains my area gold standard), with a good crisp on it, a nice pan-fried muffin, two perfectly-poached with runny yolk eggs, and a very nice Hollandaise with just a little bit of a tangy note. Add in some nicely-done home fries of the deep-fried variety, and this was a solid breakfast.
So, if you’re looking for the sort of local, Mom-and-Pop sort of breakfast and lunch spot for a good, affordable meal with a friendly staff? Wyatt’s is worth stopping in.
