Grilled Sticky Buns

Due to some recent events, I have been launched into a retrospective and somewhat nostalgic frame of mind.  I have been thinking a lot about some of the choices I've made in both my personal and professional life over the past 25 years.  Sometimes that boundary between personal and professional is a little cloudy.

Any Eat'N'Park aficionados will probably conjure up an image of a rectangular slice from a grilled sticky loaf, grilled on two sides, and served with honey/margarine sauce, aka honey smear.  But today's blog post is about my first experience with a grilled sticky bun at a tiny family restaurant called D'Antonio's on the corner of Route 724 and W Bridge Street in Spring City, PA. By the way, this restaurant no longer exists, and in its place stands a large WAWA.

My role as a single mother has dictated a lot of my career choices. When I was fresh out of college with a 2 year old daughter, and a specialized degree, I struggled with balancing the personal and career choices.  I had a passion for work and my small nuclear family, and the demands of both were often in conflict.  I did eventually, with help, clarify my values, and realized that children are extremely important to me.  I learned to make career choices that would provide for my family while exerting minimal impact upon the development of my children.

One of those career choices (and I use the term career loosely here) was to begin work as a newspaper carrier with a rural motor route.  Every day (except one sick day) for about six months, I woke up at 3 am, had breakfast and coffee, and drove my Malibu station wagon to the Pottstown Mercury building,  Most days my very kind neighbor would come over and nap on my couch so I didn't have to disturb my kids.  On the few occasions when she couldn't, I would take the kids with me, and they napped in the back seat.

I picked up the papers, and learned to roll and bag a paper while driving with my elbows.  I threw or "tubed" approximately 250 papers, about 300 on Sunday, and got home before 7 am.  One of my stops was D'Antonio's, where I left a stack of about 10 papers at the locked front door.   On Monday mornings after I got my older daughter off to school, I would go to the restaurant to collect the unsold papers, and the money for the sold ones.

The aroma of coffee and cinnamon eventually lured me to have breakfast there on one of those cold Monday mornings.  This was the first time I saw "grilled sticky bun" on a menu anywhere. At D'Antonio's it was listed as a side order, but what I was served was big enough and satisfying enough for an entire meal.  Their version of the grilled sticky bun was a large sticky bun, sliced horizontally
( like you would slice a hamburger roll), buttered and grilled only on the inside surfaces.  The heat of the grill made the "sticky" top part of the bun very gooey, and the cinnamon flavor more intense.   As this became a part of my Monday morning routine, I would ceremoniously eat the "non-sticky bottom" part first, saving the gooey top for "dessert".

Last night I bought some sticky buns from the grocery store, and since they were much smaller than D'Antonio's, I grilled two for myself this morning.