Straddle a stool at the counter or slide into a green-vinyl booth and order homemade cherry pie for desert. It's not unusual for hungry travelers to make lengthy detours to this Salina mainstay - where State Route 50 bumps into U.S. Highway 89 - just for the pie and coffee.
Carolyn and her late husband, Mel, purchased the eatery in 1975. Mel passed away in 1985. Since then, it's been all Carolyn.
"You have to be here all the time," she said. "Making your face present means a lot."
But earlier this month, Carolyn passed her rolling pin to Fred Pannunzio - he's the new "Mom."
"The success of Mom's Cafe is a tribute to Carolyn," he said. "Because of her, it's got a real good name and clientele."
For more than three decades, she's run the place seven days a week, 362 days a year. Now, at 73, she'd like to take some time off and do things with her grandchildren.
"My feet are giving me trouble," Jensen lamented. "Other than that, I might not have sold."
But regulars like Dale James and his grandson, Jesse James, don't have to worry. When they push through the door at 10 Main St. for their morning coffee, veteran waitresses Marie Hawkins and Sharon Stevenson will have the pot on.
"It's the best coffee around," Jesse claimed while relaxing in a booth.
"It's a good way to start the day," Dale added with a nod.
It's the kind of place where the Jameses don't even have to order.
Hawkins smiled: "We usually know what the locals are going to have when they walk in."
Mom's Cafe also is a magnet for motorists traversing old U.S. 89 or barrelling through on Interstate 70.
There's a photo on the wall of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. with Carolyn. An autographed picture of Ashley Judd hangs nearby. Merle Haggard has been here. And so has Kiefer Sutherland, just to mention a few.
But most visitors aren't celebrities.
Paul and Donna Brown were en route from their home in Kamas Valley to St. George and decided to take the 25-mile detour to Mom's Cafe for lunch. They ordered salmon. And, yes, it comes with Mom's signature scones.
"Whenever we come through here, we stop," Paul said. "It's good food. I've never had a bad meal here."
A hungry Salt Lake-area contractor, Boyd Stewart, also pulled in for lunch.
"I was dying for chicken-fried steak," he said. "And I knew they'd have one. I've been coming in here for years."
The summer season and weekends are packed at Mom's, and Sunday's are usually the busiest.
"Everyone comes in for our chicken-dumpling soup on Sundays," Jensen explained. "They love it."
Ranee Baker, 80, will attest to that.
A longtime Salina resident, she was a cook at Mom's Cafe back in the 1960s and '70s. While catching up with Jensen concerning the town's big news - the sale of the cafe - Baker recalled that it was she who first put scones on the menu at Mom's.
"That was a long time ago, now."
All these years later, Baker continues to frequent the cafe, she said, because it's "real food" - as opposed to what you get at some other places.
And the new owner pledges to not change a thing.
Pannunzio, who works for the state Division of Wildlife Resources, coffees up most mornings at Mom's. He'll keep his day job as conservation officer for now - his retirement from the state is somewhere around the corner. Meanwhile, he'll leave the day-to-day management to longtime cafe employee Marge Turner.
For Mom's regulars, the transition, however subtle, will take time to set in.
"It's hard to let go," Jensen said. "My employees and customers miss me. And I miss them."
But she won't be a complete stranger.
"I still come in sometimes," she said. "Today, I came in for breakfast."
