Defunct Big Mommas Chicken and Waffles: Christina Hughes Babb

Defunct Big Mommas Chicken and Waffles: Christina Hughes Babb

I am not going to pretend that Big Momma’s Chicken and Waffles (located at the southeast corner of Forest-Audelia) was in the best part of town, that it offered premium customer service or that the fried chicken was even the best in the neighborhood. However, the waffles were supreme and the shack-sized red and yellow drive-thru attracted something of a cult following. Patrol officers, slumming Parkies (that is what my daughter calls kids from Highland Park — hope that’s not derogatory) as well as students from both Lake Highlands and Berkner, and an array of neighborhood pedestrians often comprised the long lines that would form around the building that, in the past year, suffered at least two fires. One occurred just months after a remodel.

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The last several months has seen Mommas, which remained closed post fire, lose every bit of its former stature. Repairs never were made and the property is a landfill for beer bottles and, to add insult to injury, discarded wrappers from nearby fast food joints.

Now a glimmer of hope? This sign tells us to “Watch for a grand re-opening” but it also tells us it is for sale/lease, which hints at the possibility of something new going up.

As someone who lives here by Big Momma’s in this most-northern tip of Lake Highlands, I fear that our dive-y yet quality chicken shack with its quirky outdoor dining set-up overlooking a flowing creek (albeit a creek that is used sometimes for dumping trash and/or weapons and/or hiding from police), someone will build a title-loan business. Bleck. Please, no.

I have left a message with Larry Fellman, the guy who according to the sign has the information. I will update the post once and if I glean some answers from Larry.