Home Plate has two locations in southern Minnesota
By Heather Thorstensen
hthorstensen@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 08/09/2010 3:48 PM
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Home Plate
Address: 315 East Derrynane St, Le Center, Minn., right on Highway 99.
Hours: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. in summer, seven days a week. The second Home Plate location at 201 Valley Green Square in Le Sueur is open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on weekends.
Biggest seller: Burgers. Five are on the menu. The most popular is the All-American Bacon Cheeseburger, a one-third pound patty with Thousand Island dressing, lettuce, tomato, fried onion, bacon and American cheese for $6.85.
Call them at: (507) 357-4552 in Le Center or (507) 665-2080 in Le Sueur.
Find them online at: www.homeplatemn.com
LE CENTER, Minn.— Essie Mostaghimi says his key to success is variety.
He runs two Home Plate restaurants, one in Le Center and the other in Le Sueur.
The menu has breakfasts, burgers, salads, sandwiches, melts, dinner, pasta, tacos and pizza.
"You can find anything you want right here," he said.
Mostaghimi has been working in the restaurant business for close to 30 years. He has a a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Southwest Minnesota State University.
For 12 years, he worked in Los Angeles at a family restaurant next to Disneyland and has worked at chain restaurants Old Country Buffet and Timber Lodge Steakhouse. He bought what was then Brad's Home Plate in Le Center eight years ago. The Le Sueur location followed four years later. For a while, he also ran a location in Montgomery, but that has closed.
His time is spent between his businesses and family. His wife works as an accountant in St. Peter, and helps with the restaurants' finances. They have four daughters, ranging in age from 19 to three years old.
The menu has some fancier fare, a nod to Mostaghimi's L.A. experience, he said.The eggs florentine breakfast, for example, is a toasted English muffin served with spinach, tomato, eggs and Hollandaise sauce.
Every day he offers five breakfasts at $2.99 each. One choice last week was two eggs, one egg, two sausage links and two strips of bacon. Breakfast is served from the time they open until 11 a.m.
Specials are designed for local people who like home cooking. Monday's special is meat loaf, Tuesday and Wednesday is chef's choice, Thursday is Burger Day, when burgers are 89 cents and cheeseburgers are 99 cents. Friday is an all you can eat beer-battered Pollock fish fry. Except for the burgers, the specials are $6.50 for lunch and dinner.
The menu also emphasizes healthier options, with eight salads and the ability to substitute French fries for salad or soup.A senior menu offers smaller portions with lower prices.
Soups are homemade and offered alongside chili, a popular choice.
"It's right between hot and sweet," Mostaghimi said.
Salsa for tacos as well as their spaghetti sauce and fettuccine sauce are homemade. They bread their own chicken and roast their own roast beef.
Variety expands to the dessert menu. In the summer, they sell milkshakes, malts, sundaes, and ice cream mixed with candy.
When a customer orders a slice of coconut, chocolate, banana or lemon pie, that slice is prepared on its own and brought out for $1 each.
"We make it when you order it," Mostaghimi said.
Home Plate offers catering for parties of up to 500 people in a 50 mile radius of their restaurants. Groups under 30 people can pick up their prepared food, an option that costs a lot less than having the crew come out to an event, Mostaghimi said.
The restaurant is decorated with antique, farm-themed items, Norman Rockwell paintings, and paintings by Mostaghimi himself. He also has a degree in art, and displays his large, acrylic paintings of his family, his customers and country scenes in both restaurants. They spark a lot of conversation.
Last week, one of the customers he painted, Rita Schipreth, came in for breakfast with a group of regular customers in Le Center.
"It's a good gathering place for a visit and good times, and good food," said one of Schipreth's companions, Harriet Schmidt.