After working at chain restaurants for years, Aaron and Amanda Ouellette decided six years ago it was time to open their own. And not just any restaurant. It had to have a diner feel, harkening back to a simpler time when burgers were big . . . and so were the desserts.

“My husband, Aaron, and I had long talked about opening a restaurant someday. We had both worked for corporate restaurants but wanted to create our own place. Then six years ago it came to our attention that this location was available so we decided to go for it,” Amanda said.

The location is 901 Main St. in Oxford, just down the road from Oxford Plains Speedway, and, in many ways, 60 years in the past.

“We wanted to serve diner fare and we wanted a name that might have a ’50s ring to it. So when we thought of Daddy O’s it seemed especially fitting considering our last name begins with O,” said Amanda.

Today Daddy O’s is a busy place with customers traveling from across Maine to visit the small diner, with a menu that features specials such as “My Guy” and “My Girl” — a hamburger and cheeseburger, respectively, with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, mustard and mayonnaise. There’s “All Shook Up,” a barbecue bacon cheeseburger, “Mustang Sally,” a mushroom Swiss cheese burger, and “Heatwave,” a hamburger topped with pepperjack cheese, homemade chili and fried jalapenos.

That’s not to say Daddy O’s ignores today’s trends: Its “California Sun” is a veggieburger topped with provolone, sauteed onions and mushrooms served on a bun with lettuce, tomato and hummus.

And it offers a variety of soups and chili, some of which have won local awards. “All of our soups are homemade,” said Amanda. “We always have fish chowder, which is made with haddock and has won first place at several local chowder cook-offs. Our other soups vary daily, but include creamy chicken and wild rice, broccoli and cheese, corn chowder, potato leek, and crab and brie chowder, which has also won at the cook-offs.”

The desserts are homemade as well. The restaurant’s gigantic multi-flavored whoopie pies — including original, chocolate with peanut butter filling, birthday cake confetti cakes with blue frosting filling, strawberry cakes with cream filling, lemon-blueberry cakes with lemon filling, and banana-chocolate chip cakes with cream filling — are a big hit at $3.50 each.

“The whoopie pies are huge,” said Amanda. “I started making them for a woman who was selling them at festivals and fairs in the summer. When we opened the restaurant we knew we would have to make them for here too, and I just haven’t been able to bring myself to make them any smaller.”

Another favorite at Daddy O’s, according to Amanda, is their “Big Daddy O Breakfast,” which includes three eggs, three sausage links, three strips of bacon, home fries and toast for $5.50.

Other breakfast offerings include omelets, waffles, pancakes, French toast (including cinnamon roll French toast), biscuits and gravy, and baked oatmeal — all served all day.

Kids get their own menu, with specials like The Superman Burger, The Lassie Dog (a red hot dog), the Rin Tin Tin Corn Dog, The Lone Ranger Grilled Cheese and Hopalong Cassidy Mac ‘n Cheese.

The Ouellettes didn’t just create a 1950s menu. Inside their diner is an old-fashioned lunch counter with ’50s-style Coca-Cola machines and signs, and other period decor. A collection of license plates donated by customers lines the walls. There’s also a separate dining room with tables and chairs.

“The license plates are such a neat thing!” said Amanda. “We started out with two of our own on the wall and from the very beginning people just started adding to the collection! We now have plates from 32 states, two Canadian provinces and the Philippines.”

She added, “We wanted to serve home-cooked food in a fun, welcoming atmosphere with a sense of community. Hopefully we’ve achieved that.”

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 mashed bananas

2 eggs

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips

Instructions:

Beat together butter and sugars. Add vanilla, bananas, and eggs. Stir in flour, baking soda and chocolate chips. Drop on cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes. Cool and fill

Filling:

2 cups shortening

2 pounds confectioners sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

2 tablespoons water

Beat together all ingredients until smooth

Raspberry-coconut muffins

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sour cream

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup coconut

1 cup raspberries

Instructions:

Whisk together eggs, oil, sour cream and extract. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Fill muffin liners two-thirds full. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes

Daddy O’s

901 Main St.

Oxford, Maine

207-539-8100

Hours: Monday-Saturday 6 a.m.-2 p.m.; Sunday 6 a.m.-noon

On Facebook at Daddy O’s

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