Hamilton, Lebanon eateries among Ohio’s 10 Best Mom & Pop Restaurants

A Hamilton eatery that has been family run for over 70 years has been named one of the 10 Best Mom & Pop Restaurants in Ohio.

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A home-cooked meal at Hyde’s Restaurant must be followed up with “a homemade pie and some of their legendary ice cream,” according to the website Best Things Ohio, which published the top 10 list.

“Hyde’s Restaurant has been serving the community with genuine mom and pop style since 1946,” the website says.

Indeed, in 1946 brothers Jim and Hub Hyde bought what was then an ice cream shop and soon turned it into Hyde's Restaurant, located at 130 S. Erie Blvd.

Hub’s son Mick later took over operations. And in 2005, Mick’s daughters, Ashley and Amy, stepped in to help run the family operation.

Jimmy Herold, 90, has been eating at Hyde’s for decades, he said Friday afternoon while enjoying a piece of rhubarb pie with his sister Geri Meyers, 75.

“I feel like I’ve been coming here for 90 years,” Herold joked, as he made sure his second piece of pie was prepared for takeout. “My father was a butcher and Hyde’s would only buy their meat from him. He would bring me here to eat. I have always loved coming here.”

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Meyers said she has been visiting her brother from Lebanon where she lives because his wife has been sick and she has enjoyed eating at the restaurant.

“Their food is delicious and they have great service,” Meyers said. “The pie is amazing.”

Hyde’s will be celebrating its 71st birthday on Aug. 23, and co-owner Ashley Hyde, who runs the restaurant along with her sister, Amy Hyde-Klaiber, said it is a family affair between the staff and customers.

“We have customers that have been eating here since childhood and now they are senior citizens. We have a wonderful familial connection with our customers,” she said.

She added that the place is “like home for families,” who just want to step away from “all of the distractions in life and come — some twice a day — to get a good home-cooked meal.”

Another area restaurant making the website's list is Breakfast Club Cafe in Lebanon.

“The Breakfast Club Cafe proudly proclaims to have the best food and coffee in town, and anyone who’s been there can testify to that fact. With always fresh ingredients to create that genuine homemade quality, you’ll feel like you’re back in your parents’ kitchen,” the website said.

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