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The Morning Glory Diner made its mark in the late 1990s as the place that “made brunch cool again” and paved the way for a slew of other hip breakfast spots to open up in South Philly and beyond.
Decades later, the Bella Vista restaurant remains famous for its made-from-scratch pancakes and biscuits, distinctive home-brewed ketchup, and year-round covered patio — along with long lines on weekend mornings.
But the diner may be even better known for the loudly left-wing, anti-Republican messages it blasts from handmade window signs and, uh, colorfully titled menu specials.
“Our first one ever was ‘Scalia Is a Douche,’” owner Carol Mickey recalled in 2023, “which was right after he wrote a dissent in the gay marriage debate.”
The dish, a frittata with andouille sausage, tomato, scallions and Monterey Jack cheese, sold out in record time. The spicy name and many others that followed brought the diner national attention, as well angry attacks from those who objected to Mickey’s politics.
“They interfered with our phone service. They would call and order food and never pick it up,” she said. “They would do everything to try to torment us… And the last thing they did was interfere with our Facebook and our Instagram and our Google websites.”
The restaurant nonetheless remains tremendously popular, and Mickey as loudly defiant as ever in her beliefs and continually updated dish titles.
Scrumptious French toast, polarizing ketchup
Samantha “Sam” Mickey opened Sam’s Morning Glory Diner in 1997 after bartending and waiting tables at several restaurants, including the similarly acclaimed Down Home Diner in Reading Terminal Market, which inspired her menu.
Amid the often bleak and boring restaurant breakfasts available at the time, it turned out serving really good homemade food at a charmingly decorated neighborhood diner was a recipe for success.
“In an era when so many of our old-fashioned diners are slipping away into the microwave age of convenience,” Inquirer restaurant critic Craig Laban gushed, Mickey’s eatery was “breathing new life back into the genre, pouring heart and soul into comfort food that still bothers to be homemade.”
While her inexperience as a cook occasionally showed, the menu made good use of fresh local produce and meat, and featured many delights, like challah French toast with strawberry compote, and puffy pan-baked frittatas filled with roasted potatoes and smoky ham, Laban wrote.
The critic also mentioned the ketchup, a polarizing condiment that has been compared to marinara sauce. Initially it was made in a 12-hour process that involved mixing in apples, clove, ginger and tomato.
After the Morning Glory succeeded, it was followed by several other more or less “funky” brunch places like Honey’s Sit and Eat, Sabrina’s, and Green Eggs.
Mickey battled brain cancer, and was mourned in the restaurant community and beyond when she passed away in 2012 at 44 years old, leaving three young children. Her mom Carol, who’s an attorney, took over, and a few years later started putting her own distinctive imprimatur on the restaurant.
“You have the biggest mouth”
Since the Scalia frittata, the daily specials menu has continued to feature new dish names reflecting Carol Mickey’s disdain toward President Donald Trump and conservatives generally, as well as her affection for Democrats — particularly District Attorney Larry Krasner, a longtime regular, and Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Menus have offered “Hate Makes You Hungry” tacos and a “Gov Shapiro Is Pro-Life” scramble, and dishes that say Krasner or Shapiro “eats free.”
Others include “Ban Guns Not Pastrami Scramble,” “Read a Banned Book Then Enjoy A Breakfast Quesadilla,” and topical recent titles like “The King’s Castle Needs A Ballroom Scramble” (with turkey sausage, spinach, shiitakes and smoked mozzarella), “Secy Duffy is a Douche Chilaquiles” (referring to the U.S. Secretary of Transportation), “Shapiro 2028 Sausage Gravy and Eggs,” and “Enact the 25th Amendment then eat Eggs Benedict Florentine.”
In 2018, Shapiro, then the state attorney general, visited the Morning Glory to highlight his opposition to a Trump administration proposal that would let employers take their employees’ tips. “After the press conference, I said to him, ‘Why us, out of every place in Pennsylvania?’” she told 34th Street magazine. “He said, ‘You have the biggest mouth.’”
The staff have also designed window posters with messages on a range of subjects, from supporting democracy to advocating for Ukraine relief, and written political messages on a blackboard inside. A Trump effigy is a regular presence by the restaurant’s entrance and a hand-written pro-choice poster with the image of a crossed-out coathanger hangs in the window.
Mickey’s outspoken politics still occasionally enrage critics on the right, but the restaurant remains a beloved dining destination for brunch aficionados — especially those who lean left.
“People tell me it’s like a haven,” said Cotton James Mcgowan, Mickey’s grandson and a manager at the diner. “For every single person there that doesn’t like what we do, there’s like three more that love it, support it, and tell everybody else about it.”
