Best Place to Take Your Parents

Kristi R. Garabrandt

Freshman public relations major Baily Purpura celebrates her birthday with family at Ray’s Place, April 8, 2014.

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Ray’s Place

Best Place to Take Your Parents is one of six first-place finishes for Ray’s Place. Click here to read the full profile.

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Mike’s Place

Mike’s Place is an experience. It’s full of knick-knacks and oddities, from the signs and planes on the walls to the big yellow bus attached to the back and the list of “rules” in the front of the menu.

“We have a lot of different things to look at. We have a lot of things to see throughout the restaurant, and there are tons of menu options,” Mike’s place manager Tobin Rogers said.

If you’re taking your folks there for the first time, Rogers said to make sure they “take the time to actually wander around and check the place out.”

The bar area might be the best place to sit because Rogers said it has the most personality, and take them for breakfast if you get the chance. It’s a Mike’s Place specialty.

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The Pufferbelly Ltd.

Owner Kevin Long calls The Pufferbelly Ltd. a “fresh house,” meaning they make all of their soups and sauces and come up with fresh specials every day. He also prides the restaurant for its diverse menu options.

“We have a nice variety of salads, steaks, seafood [and] pizzas,” he said. “It’s just a nice selection … it’s a little bit for anybody. You can get a nice steak or a good wrap. It caters to the younger generation but if mom and dad want to come in and get a nice salmon fillet they can get that too.”

What makes Pufferbelly great for when the parents visit is just that — it’s not fine dining, so it’s not a stuffy atmosphere, but it is fine, fresh food.

Kelsey Husnick at [email protected].