Old McDonald Cafe: Basic Eats From A Bygone Era

One good thing about Old McDonald Cafe is that it is not, repeat NOT, in a strip mall!  It's in an old storefront on Exchange Street in "downtown" Acton, across the street from the Dinner Bell Market.  It's a pretty simple place, evocative of a lot of small-town cafes I've been in across the USA-- concrete floor, basic booths and tables, kitchen counter with table, griddle, and fryers along one wall, separated from the dining room only by a cash register counter and refrigerated display cooler like a meat market or deli would have.  OMC harkens back to the day when Acton was a little bit of civilization surrounded by farm fields.  Actually, Acton hasn't really changed that much from those days, although now it's mostly surrounded by suburban housing developments.  The closest food competition is in Wanamaker, which is only about 10 minutes away by car, but if you live out that way and have one of those days when you don't want to cook and don't want to drive any farther from home than is absolutely necessary, you wind up at OMC.  Pretty much everyone I know who lives in Franklin Township has been there more than once, for just that reason, if not just to look at the displays of the founder's WWII memorabilia on the walls.  I'm told the founder is 86 years old and still owns the place but doesn't come in much, so you'll probably never see him there unless you go there a LOT.

The food there is not stellar, but it is pretty good, and simple, and fairly cheap.  I've never had a bad meal there, but never had a really outstanding one, either.  It's just good basic home-style food, with one exception:  The last time we went, there was a sign in the window that said "GIANT TENDERLOINS ARE BACK!", and they weren't lyin'....   We had one, and it was HULKIN' HUGE, more than one person (even Karl the Hutt) could eat, and it was only like 6 bucks.  It was your basic tenderloin sandwich only it's obviously been hit with an overdose of gamma rays.   So eat hearty, my friends, but don't  make the tenderloin angry-- you wouldn't like it when it's angry!