The first time we went to Smiley’s at 323 N Tejon St. in downtown Colorado Springs I was unimpressed. I don’t remember what I had but whatever it was I thought I could make it better at home myself.

But the place is really cute inside and they have outdoor seating. It reminds me of what a roadside or country cafe in the south would be like. I haven’t spent much time in the south so I don’t really know this from experience but it’s what I imagine one of those kinds of places would be like.

 None of the chairs match, they have retro signs and ephemera all over the walls, the menu is on a chalkboard inside and handwritten outside.

 Plus everyone else on earth loves it and it’s only a couple blocks from our house so we gave it a second chance. I’m really glad we did. It’s one of my favorite places now.

I had the cornmeal pancakes with blueberries and some scrambled eggs. It also came with bacon or ham. Lately I’ve been trying to avoid eating pork so I usually give my pork products to Mike. Since he was having bacon with his, I got the ham.

Doesn’t that bacon look good!? I thought so too.

So I had a bite.

And OMG, this bacon was impossible to resist. It’s funny because even hard core vegetarians have a hard time resisting bacon. But I was always just so-so on it and never really missed eating it. But this bacon will kill you. In a good way. You have to try it.

So the next time we went I got the whole grain pancakes with blackberries, scrambled eggs and BACON. Mike had the chicken fried steak with potatoes and bacon.

They also have a large lunch menu with sandwiches, salads and things like that. Oh, and pie. Pie! But they close at 4:00 so you gotta get there early!