Happiness and comfort food at Stacy's

It was a rainy Sunday, but inside Stacy's at Greenstreet, the mood was blue skies and lemonade. We were feeling a bit grumpy because although it wasn't stormy, it was the kind of drizzle that makes everything gray - like watching television with really bad reception. Also, our shoes were squishy from unsuccessfully stepping over puddles. As soon as we entered Stacy's, my eight year-old date's face lit up. "Suddenly I became happy," she said as she walked barefoot onto a patch of fake grass in the corner, where a kiddie area was set up with a small table and a bucket of wooden blocks.

Relieved that I wouldn't have to deal with a cranky date, I sat at the table next to the kiddie area and looked at the menu. At Stacy's, the reasons to smile are endless. Just looking at the logo makes you happy - maybe it's the fancy letters, or the pre-school color scheme. The menu is simple - no pictures, but the way the dishes are named says a lot. Under the heading "All-Day Breakfast, Hooray!" are Cerealovers Mix, Jersey Shore, Monkey Toasts, Apple County, and Irish Beef 'N Taters. On the next page are "Lovin' Spoonfuls" - Stacy Jones, Hawaii 5-0, Rice 'N Shine, Manila Pride and Waikiki Omu-Rice. Then there's Clara's Feast and Granny's Picnic Bowl, and the "After Brunch Stacy's Specials" - Layered Sausage and Potato Pie, Potato Chip Fried Chicken, Texas Barbecue Ribs, Herbed Cream Dory Fillet with Aioli Dip, Bluebell Farm's Beef Casserole, Mobster's Meal, Martha's Pot Roast, Dear John, and Homebaked Chicken Parmesan. For pasta lovers, there's the "Ready, Spaghetti" section, which has Stacy's Spaghetti and Meatballs, Lemon Shrimp Scampi with Angel Hair, Bacon and Mushroom Carbonara, and Mac & Cheese, please! The What's New, Peggy Sue? selection featured Real Deal Nachos, Buffalo Wing Flings, and French Connection. There were so many choices, and as she was busy building a castle with colorful blocks, my date couldn't be bothered with making a decision. The most she was willing to do was read out the beverage options from a blackboard above the desserts counter. After changing her mind thrice (it's difficult to pick one flavor when you have Triple Chocolate, Pink Strawberry, Candy Vanilla, and Peanut Butter Whoopee), she ordered a vanilla milkshake and ran back to the play area. Anywhere else, she probably wouldn't be allowed to run around, but at Stacy's, families with energetic kids in tow are welcome. It's no coincidence that the restaurant's friendly design is an instant kid-pleaser - since opening in May, Stacy's has held a Teddy Bear Tea Party, and a handful of children's parties. While waiting for the rest of our folks to arrive, we munched on the Real Deal Nachos, which can be ordered without the meat in the mile-high dip of butterball lettuce, olives, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, onions, avocado slices, cilantro and tomatoes. More kids arrived, and eventually my date gave up trying to share the wooden blocks. Just when I thought she would begin complaining about boredom, we spotted wooden tic-tac-toe trays, which we played until she spotted a pile of comic books. When our folks arrived, we tried to coordinate our orders. We ended up getting the Lemon Shrimp Scampi with Angel Hair, the Waikiki Omu-Rice, the Layered Sausage and Potato Pie, the Potato Chip Fried Chicken, the Homebaked Chicken Parmesan, the Spaghetti with Meatballs, and Martha's Pot Roast. There was a bit of a mix-up with our orders, but we were too busy appreciating the restaurant's charming interiors to mind. Also, we were munching on popcorn, candy-coated pretzels, and marshmallows while waiting for our food. Fortunately, the correct orders came before we could stuff ourselves with sweets. We should have been warned that the servings were for sharing. On second thought, it didn't matter because the food was so good that we managed to clean our plates, and even order Sansrival and Blueberry Cheesecake for dessert. We washed everything down with Stacy's flavored homemade iced tea. The food was a bit buttery, but tasty to the last bite. In any case, Stacy's isn't the place to go if you're on a diet, unless you want to stick to the Everyday Soup and Greens section of the menu. There's Tomato Cream Soup, Milky Macaroni Soup, Creamy Pumpkin Soup with toasted bacon, and Cream of Wild Mushroom. For salads, there's the Classic Chicken Caesar or the Grilled Shrimp with Sweet Pomelo and mixed greens in Asian Dressing. The Waikiki Omu-rice was declared the best thing to ever happen to Spam, and the Lemon Shrimp Scampi was delightfully spicy. Running back and forth from the play area to our table, my date was the happiest person there, and she declared the Potato Fried Chicken the best ever. My aunt was happy, too, because she was treating and Stacy's dishes cost less than 200 pesos each. But what was amazing was that even my uncle, who is usually pretty quiet, was animatedly sharing stories and even singing along to the music, which was a playlist of happy tunes like "Calendar Girl" and "My Girl." There's something about Stacy's that just makes people happy, or maybe it's a combination of everything at Stacy's - the pastel pink refrigerator, the white picket fence, the rainbow-colored buntings, and of course, the freshly-cooked meals that define comfort food. - YA, GMA News Stacy's restaurant is located at the Capitol Greenstreet Commercial Center, 1 Capitol Hills Drive near Ayala Heights, Quezon City. Visit Stacy's Facebook page or call 9526843 or 0927.3262244 for details.