Lucky Steer Restaurant | Facebook
1381 Bellefontaine St. (map it!)
Wapakoneta, OH 45895
(419) 738-6464
Open daily from 5a-9p
Visited: Friday, October 18, 2019 at 9:00 a.m.
We can’t resist stopping for breakfast any time we travel. I mean, that’s a major impetus behind starting the blog years ago, to document the little discoveries we make wherever we go. So working in breakfast is just part of the planning process these days.
On a trip to South Bend, Indiana to hang out with my family, we aimed to pass through Wapakoneta, Ohio so we could visit the Armstrong Air & Space Museum. Our youngest Owen is obsessed with space right now, so we couldn’t resist making the stop.
And thanks to our friends Aaron and Astronaut Harrison at Small Steps Are Giant Leaps, we were tipped off to a great breakfast place across the street: the Lucky Steer.
Lucky Steer is one of those quintessential local spots, bustling, inexpensive, filled with regulars even on a Friday morning.
Being in the birthplace of Neil Armstrong and sitting across from the museum bearing his name, the Lucky Steer of course features a breakfast dish in honor of the moon landing.
And they do it justice: the delightful cinnaMOON pancakes have “craters” of cinnamon.
And they’re just plain light and fluffy, with a dollop of cream cheese frosting.
Nicely done country fried steak, too – very tender, good gravy, lovely hash browns.
Both boys ordered the biscuits and gravy and pronounced it up to their standards.
The Lucky Skillet combines home fries, eggs, peppers, and onions, all topped with gravy. Tastes just as you’d expect, and very hearty.
One wall of the main dining room features a display of ceramic tiles representing local history, space travel, and other tidbits.
Breakfast at the Lucky Steer is especially fitting when paired with a visit to the Armstrong Air & Space Museum, of course!
You can explore most of the museum in 1-1.5 hours. It features artifacts and stories from Neil Armstrong’s childhood in Wapakoneta, his military service, and of course his role in the space program. There’s a short documentary that plays every half hour in the domed theatre, and there are plenty of interactive exhibits.
Notable finds include his backup suit for Apollo 11, a moon rock, and his Gemini 8 spacecraft, in which he successfully performed the first docking of two craft in space (and then saved his life and that of pilot David Scott when it almost spun out of control).
Breakfast + a space museum = always a good fit!
