Theresa's Restaurant: 'Everyone Is Family'

Theresa’s is a local favorite for breakfast and lunch, where owner-manager Jodi Boucher knows many regulars by name. A canopy of winding vines provides a natural buffer to the downtown traffic on Tamiami Trail, making the restaurant comfortable and convenient.

Theresa’s is bright and roomy but not pretentious, which is how residents like it. Customers are not rushed and can take their time over breakfast or lunch, whether they read the newspaper or sit alone and chat with staff as they hustle by with traditional diner food.

“Everything is homemade. We make our own homemade soups,” says owner Jodi Boucher. "We win awards for our food."

Theresa’s has been around for 30 years, though ownership changed from the namesake. But the hands-on approach and attitude of the management have stayed the same. “Hello, Mary Kay, how are you?” says Irvin, an employee greeting a long-time customer. Hands full with takeout food, Irvin is heading out to deliver an order to a downtown office.

“Margaret, do you want yours on wheat, too?” Boucher calls out to a customer, as she delivers a sandwich to a table. "Everyone is family here," Boucher says to Patch, as she makes the rounds to tables at her restaurant.

It’s that familiarity and down-home approach that keep folks coming back year after year. Oh, yeah, the menu of comfort food, American-style, helps, too.

Lunch favorites include: Chicken Salad (all white meat) Sandwich on a Croissant, for $6.99; Grilled Bacon and Swiss Burger with Fries and a Drink ($6.50), Homemade Taco Salad ($6.99), which is offered only on Tuesdays. There are white-board specials that are not on the menu but can include the Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup ($6.99) or the Turkey Cheese and Tomato Melt ($6.99).

There also are the “special offerings,” such as Cheese Blintzes with Fresh Fruit and Whipped Cream Topping ($8.50) or the Chicken Salad on Grilled Cinnamon Raisin Toast With Swiss Cheese ($7.25).

Breakfast is just as appealing. Theresa’s is no longer open “at the crack of dawn,” as an old mural at the place indicates. The restaurant is open for business at 8 a.m., with breakfast served all day.

Cheese blintzes are a breakfast feature, too. But customers also get the usual range of egg-based creations, from the Popeye Scramble, made with three eggs, mushrooms, spinach and cheese, for $7.25, to the Texas Toast Melt, a breakfast sandwich, for $4.95.