More often than not our family would go to breakfast after Sunday mass. Curran's Family Restaurant got a lot of our business. I loved getting omlettes with cheddar cheese and pancakes on the side. Dad usually got the now infamous (at least in our own family lore) Cakes and Eggs which I think was either number 7 or 8 on the regular breakfast specials menu.
The following is from the Curran's website:
"The Curran name has occupied the corner of 42nd and Nicollet since 1948. That name, however, has lived on through centuries in another part of the world. The Curran family name can be traced back to seventeenth century Ireland when it was the most popular name in Tipperary. By 1901, the Irish census had counted 142 Curran families in County Kerry alone."
"The Minneapolis Currans were part of that 142. Dennis Curran was born in County Kerry in 1861; he immigrated to the United States, landing in New York City. There he met and married Honora Sullivan, an Irish nanny. They left New York and began a journey that led them to the copper mines of Michigan and eventually to Green Isle, Minnesota, where they homesteaded a farm in 1870."
"Dennis and Honora had six children - one of whom was John Curran. The fifth of six children, hohn farmed with his family until his marriage to Katie Morrin. In time John married Katie Morrin and they bought their own farm and raised six children of their own."
"Their fourth child, Mike, decided that farming wasn't his vocation in life. Instead, he operated grocery stores and meat markets. During World War II, he managed the officer's club on Waikiki Beach. Upon his return in 1948, Make and his father, John, built a 14' by 14' drive-in restaurant at 42nd and Nicollet. Curran's opened for business on May 17, 1948, and Mike operated it as a carhop drive-in until 1954. That year he added a counter with nine stools inside the restaurant building. On year later, Curran's boasted the first electronic two-way car-to-kitchen ordering system in the Twin Cities."
Curran's is located at 4201 Nicollet Avenue South.
Top photo shows the mural Nicollet Field 1920 on the park building at MLK Park at 41st and Nicollet. The bottom photo shows Nicollet Park at Lake Street and Nicollet Avenue.
More from the Curran's website: "Changes in the restaurant business prompted Mike to build an 84-seat dining room and coffee shop with expanded menu in 1974. Four years later, [a] 30-year era ended when we discontinued the drive-in service and removed the speaker system. In 1977, Mike's son, Dennis M. Curran, joined him as a partner in the business. In 1981, Curran's added another 60-seat dining room and continued to expand its menu, remodel, and update. In 1985 the complete dining area was decorated and a small dining and meeting room was added. The most recent remodeling and decorating [occurred] in the winter of 2001, [which] brings us to the present."
