The story starts in 1945, when a career woman named Ann Sather quit her job of 22 years, pooled her savings and bought a Swedish diner on Belmont from owners who were retiring. She ran it herself for 35 years before selling in 1981 to Tom Tunney, a 24-year-old Cornell hotel school graduate who apprenticed with her for a year, learned every Scandinavian cooking secret in the building and later became the 44th Ward's alderman. Ann passed away in 1996, but her portrait still watches over the dining room, and the house motto is still good food, good friends and good conversation. The order is easy: any egg plate lets you pick two homemade cinnamon rolls as a side, so you should.
From there it's Swedish pancakes with lingonberries, Swedish meatballs and potato sausage, a Swedish breakfast sampler, bacon cheddar potato pancakes and a French toast fantasy made from mascarpone-filled cinnamon rolls, plus Benedicts, omelets and wraps. The Broadway café also runs its own specials, like banana pecan French toast. It's BYOB, with the fixings for Bloody Marys and mimosas on hand, there's a 3 percent credit card charge, and the newest location is on Division Street.
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