Comfort Classics
Bianca Flores serves up a meal of salisbury steak and mashed potatoes.
Bonnie’s at the Red Byrd in Keedysville continues 66-year tradition of home-style cooking
By April & Andrew Bartel
Bonnie’s towering cheeseburger served with krinkle-cut fries, cole slaw, and pickles.
Just inside the waiting area of Bonnie’s at the Red Byrd in Keedysville is a vintage newspaper page commemorating the restaurant’s grand opening in 1958. It is part of a collage that shows original photos of happy diners, postcards of its sister motel, and ads of the day touting blouses for $0.39. It’s a blast from the past.
A lot has changed since the original owners, David Olin and Julia Byrd, founded the original Red Byrd Restaurant. It is no longer bright red, and the motel is long gone. Luckily, a few important qualities endure, like a menu loaded with hearty, American fare at reasonable prices and a hometown atmosphere that welcomes travelers and regulars alike.
Bonnie Hawker took over the place in 2011, channeling decades of restaurant experience into its revival while making it her own. The “new” fried chicken and crab cake recipes migrated with Hawker from her former eatery in Lovettsville, Virginia. These days, you can find her in the kitchen surrounded by mounds of ingredients, bubbling pots, and roasting pans laden with the likes of scratch-made mac and cheese or pork loin with sauerkraut.
“It’s a family business,” says Bonnie, explaining how she is supported by best friends, her godchildren, longtime employees, and generational customers.
It stands, then, that her menu is a hit list of comfortable, homestyle classics, but it is what’s on the tables that makes this place a standout. Guests can find old-school creamed chipped beef, country ham, fried oysters, or grilled liver and onions alongside T-bone steaks and fresh-cut pork chops—either grilled or breaded and fried. Breakfast at Bonnies means plate-sized hotcakes, corned beef hash with eggs, or savory sausage gravy.
Bonnie’s Big Byrd Platter comes highly recommended. It is two 1/3-pound fresh beef patties topped with American cheese on a three-tiered bun and dressed with Thousand island dressing, pickle relish, lettuce, and onion. It is speared with a steak knife to keep it standing tall.
Salisbury steak with mashed potatoes and gravy and Bonnie’s specialty crab cakes at Bonnie’s at Red Byrd.
We had to try the crab cake sandwich, which was served lightly browned on the grill with crinkle-cut fries and pickles. Hawker, who gets raves on her crab cakes from afficionados, shares its backstory while seasoning a batch of stewed tomatoes.
“I got a job at a little diner in Jefferson just as I turned 14,” Hawker says. When the employer left her in charge of cooking for a long weekend, she decided to get creative. Upon return, the boss praised her effort and potential, offering encouragement that Hawker would serve it in her own restaurant one day. So, seeing guests enjoy it now is a particular point of pride.
We also tasted the fried clam platter and were impressed with the portion of crispy, succulent seafood bites. The golden corn fritters were heavenly, dusted with powdered sugar, and the steak and cheese sub was hefty, too, but we really looked forward to dessert. Daily choices are temptingly displayed in a case near the register.
Bonnie Hawker, seated and her Goddaughters Nikki Jardan (left) and Bianca Flores.
Hawker chuckles devilishly, admitting that moving the tower of treats to a prime location was her idea. “You hear people in the line saying, ‘I know what I’m having for dessert’ before they even sit down,” she says.
The diner counter at Bonnie’s at Red Byrd in Keedysville.
We spied a richly frosted red velvet layer cake, a chocolate cream pie, and a cheesecake, but the lemon-berry mascarpone cake and caramel-drizzled apple pie were especially enticing.
Some folks mark their calendars for Bonnie’s Monday through Friday all-you-can-eat specials where guests can get their fill of a daily feature: fried catfish, spaghetti, roasted pork, or that famous fried chicken. Patrons can also order take-home quarts of pot pie on Wednesdays. The big draw is Bonnie’s holiday meals, including slow-roasted turkey or ham with pineapple. The staff expects to feed about 400 people for Mother’s Day.
“I love that community aspect,” says Hawker, who praises the local visitor’s center for keeping local companies and citizens connected. “They’ve been a big help to me here.”
As a patriot and a history buff, she’s happy to support veterans’ causes and feed the tourists that come to nearby the Antietam National Battlefield. “There’s nothing I believe in more than my community and my country,” she says. Her parting words are as enduring as her culinary style. “I just want people to know when they come here that they’re going to get fresh, home-cooked food.”