In 1986, Norma Manis sold the Oak Cliff cafe that carried her name. She had been feeding Dallas for decades by then, and the plan, as far as anyone could tell, was to finally sit down.
That plan lasted about two years.
By 1988 she was back at it, and since she’d sold the Norma’s name along with the business, she needed a new one. Everybody already called her Mama. Her daughters were going to be the ones running the thing. So she went with the obvious, and Mama’s Daughters’ Diner opened on Irving Boulevard, in the stretch of warehouses and showrooms that we now call the Design District.
It’s still there at 2014 Irving Blvd., and the lunch rush still looks about the way it always has. Somebody at the counter is on his second cup of coffee. A booth full of coworkers is arguing over who gets the last piece of cornbread. The pie case up front is doing its quiet work on everybody who walks past it.
Norma Manis died in February 2013 at 80. The diners kept going without missing much of a beat, because the family had been running them all along. Her daughter Nancy Procaccini oversees the Dallas, Plano, Irving and Forney locations. Another daughter, Laurie Bowers, owns the one in Lewisville. And a granddaughter, Bonnie Jaggers, has been working at Mama’s since she was 16 and now manages Forney. Every location is owned and run by the family.
The Lewisville story deserves its own paragraph. Laurie opened that location in 1999 after hitting a jackpot at a Louisiana casino, and she put the money into a diner. That may be the most Texas thing anybody has ever done with casino winnings.
Breakfast is served from open to close, every day, and the menu doesn’t pretend to be anything it isn’t. The Texas Size Breakfast gets you two eggs, hash browns or grits, toast or biscuits with gravy, and your choice of a chicken-fried steak, a sirloin, or a pair of pork chops. Mama’s Favorite Breakfast comes with homemade biscuits and sausage gravy. And for the lighter appetite there’s the Mama’s Granddaughters Special, which is two biscuits under sausage gravy, and which is also possibly the best-named breakfast in Dallas.
Lunch is where the place really shows off. Every day brings a different lineup of Meat & 3 specials, served with a handmade roll or cornbread, and regulars know the calendar by heart. Tuesday is fried chicken and spaghetti and meatballs. Wednesday and Saturday bring chicken and dumplings. Thursday is chicken tetrazzini and braised beef tips over rice. Friday leans toward the water with breaded catfish and salmon patties, plus chicken and dressing. Meat loaf, roast beef with brown gravy and chicken-fried steak with cream gravy are on the board every single day, because some things are not up for debate.
The sides are where you can tell how old-school the kitchen is. Turnip greens. Okra and tomatoes. Pickled beets. Baked squash. Pineapple and cottage cheese, a side you’d expect on a church potluck table in 1974 and almost nowhere else today. If your grandmother cooked, you’ll see her somewhere on this menu.
Then there’s the pie. It’s baked in-house, and there’s a baker at each location, which is rare now. Coconut cream and chocolate cream are the ones people talk about, but the apple crumb, pecan, fried pies and peach cobbler all have their fans. If you’re hosting and don’t feel like baking, you can order whole pies and cobblers with a day’s notice. Mama would approve.
The walls are covered in Mama’s sayings, the same advice every mother in Texas handed out at one point or another. You’ve heard most of them before, probably from your own mother, probably while you were trying to get out the door.
Plenty of newer Dallas restaurants have taken a swing at comfort food, usually with a craft cocktail list and a clever name for the mac and cheese. Mama’s Daughters’ still peels its own potatoes, pours the tea by the gallon, and sends you home with more cornbread than you asked for. Thirty-eight years in, the lunch crowd keeps showing up.
The original Mama’s Daughters’ Diner at 2014 Irving Blvd. in the Design District is open Monday through Friday from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. There are also family-run locations in West Plano, South Irving, Forney and Lewisville. Menus and hours for all five are on the Mama’s Daughters’ website.
