Molly Quinn's, RIP

MNSpeak notes that Molly Quinn's is up for sale, a self-proclaimed victim of the smoking ban. There was a time when I felt that there were few things finer than the "Iowa" they made for breakfast - several kinds of meat, mixed with cheese, tossed with eggs, and layered on top of a big pile of hashbrowns, all on the cheap and with the option of a Guinness on the side. Damn that was good eats. And then they moved, and the good waitresses went away, leaving the one really bad waitress (it takes an effort to make me not tip - not just a total lack of effort, but a willingness to put your best foot forward to be exceptionally bad and incompetent), and the food changed, and the Iowa was no longer an Iowa. The first time I hit their new digs after they moved from near the river I waited something along the lines of 1.5 hours for my newly nasty Iowa (and a significant amount of time for my first cup of coffee, which is inexcusable if you're serving breakfast). That's not hyperbole - that's a real estimate of the time involved. Near my table was a little girl who was crying because she was so hungry. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and wandered into the near end of the kitchen to find her some Saltines so she didn't wither away. We tried the place again with some friends who had fond memories of breakfast and had a similar experience and that was the end of a several year family (and friends of family) tradition. I'd miss it, but I miss the old Molly Quinn's, before it moved, and that wasn't ever coming back.