The Soly’s are a resilient family that supports each other and turns everything into a family affair. Past endeavors include the non-profit Punks for a Princess, coaching basketball, making music, and running their food truck Sunnyside of the Street. Regardless of the family member leading the charge, the other three are never far behind, ready to put in their best efforts to help and encourage. Their latest endeavor, Your Mother’s Favorite Breakfast Place, continues the family tradition that Tony, Misty, Will and Owen Soly hold dear to their hearts.
“The benefits [of working with family] include knowing everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and knowing how to work with and around them,” said Tony.
There was never an official plan to open Your Mother’s Favorite Breakfast Place. Sunnyside of the Street was successful, but there were issues with keeping the vehicle running. In 2022, the Soly’s were looking to build their own commercial kitchen, but that plan fell through, and with winter coming, they decided to put the food truck on hold and focus on opening their own space. They found a location on Weeden St and went right to work redesigning it and making it their own.
“The concept has definitely changed,” said Tony. “The commercial kitchen was going to be more of a nighttime, pub-food type menu. So when we made the decision to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant, we decided to stick with what we preferred to cook, which is breakfast food.”
Your Mother’s Favorite Restaurant opened in January 2023 and has been receiving rave reviews since. Their decision to stick with breakfast foods allowed them to get extremely creative with the typical staples of pancakes, French toast, and eggs. While they have all of the traditional dishes that people would expect from a breakfast place, the “Fun Stuff” portion of the menu showcases their imagination.
“The response has been positive,” said Tony. “We’re trying our best to keep things as affordable as possible in these trying times, while still putting out good-quality products.”
Your Mother’s Favorite Restaurant also does its part to give back to the community, a tradition held over from the Sunnyside days. The menu offers a $2.50 “Feed the Unhoused” option, which helps feed a healthy breakfast to 1-2 people in need. They work with local non-profits to provide this service.
“On Christmas Eve 2022 we were approached by Pat Ford from The Coalition Talk Radio about the food truck helping The Milagros Project, which is a non-profit that assists the unhoused in and around Woonsocket, by having us pass out a hot meal and coffee. The wind chill and temps were life-threatening, so our family, the Milagros Project, Coalition Radio, and some volunteers bundled up and passed out about 50 or so meals around Woonsocket, going to different encampments and shelters with our food truck,” Tony explained. “We were then asked and decided to do it monthly on the last Friday of the month, as that is when money is the tightest for those needing assistance. We spoke to our friends at New Beginnings Soup Kitchen who got us started by donating bacon for our first ‘official’ Feed the Unhoused meal, as they do this type of work Monday through Thursday. They have become great partners with us to bounce things by or donate food that we may not be able to utilize before expiration. So with the help of our customers at Your Mom’s and some other small businesses and non-profits each month we attempt to feed a minimum of 35 people a healthy meal. We give the same food portions and quality to the unhoused as we do to our customers and it is cooked in our restaurant and then distributed through the Milagros Project to area shelters.”
The name, inspired by their love of “your mom” jokes, was picked by Will and Owen.
“We all sat in the living room one night trying to come up with a name that we could all agree on,” Tony reminisced. “I think we went through two names before we landed on ‘Your Mother’s.’ It was just a matter of finding a way to disguise the mom joke so we wouldn’t appear unappealing to customers.”
Tony says that owning a food truck is much different from owning a restaurant, though he is achieving his goal of creatively providing people with quality and filling traditional and non-traditional takes on breakfast.
“Owning a food truck is like a sprint. You have to get people in and out as fast as possible, you rely on events and catering to make money, and there is only so much time in a season. Having a storefront is like a marathon. You’re constantly trying to build clientele, you are able to have quality and lengthy conversations with customers, and there are quite a few more steps when it comes to serving.”
Their storefront is on the smaller side, which is something that they hope to expand in the future. They are also launching a late-night menu starting in July. That menu will be available late night on weekends via Grubhub and Doordash and will focus on food cravings with pub-style finger foods, burgers, bombs (stuffed spring roll wrappers), house-made sauces, and ice cream-based drinks.
Your Mother’s Favorite Restaurant is located at 533 Weeden St in Pawtucket. Call 401-205-1403 or check out their Facebook page for more information.