Michelle Tribolet is a supervisor and server at Austin's. With the breakfasts, cook David Thayer aims to give customers a "meal like Grandma would cook." Said co-owner Lynda Wilson: "I want them to feel contented when they walk out the door."

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Austin's Old Fashioned Ice Cream, a Tucson fixture for nearly 50 years, has long been heralded for its sandwiches and sweets.

But now, for the first time since it opened in 1959, breakfast is served — from 7 to 11 a.m. daily.

You could order ice cream for breakfast — or a brownie, a piece of pound cake or a slice of pie — but you'd be missing out on all the delicious breakfast choices.

Lynda Wilson and her husband, Bill Wilson, have owned Austin's since 2001. The restaurant moved in May 2006 from its longtime home on East Broadway and Country Club into a former Souper Salad location near Park Place mall.

The current place is bright and airy, with 5,000 square feet and a capacity of about 150. It dwarfs the old location, which had 1,200 square feet and a capacity of 98.

Lynda Wilson, who has been with Austin's since 1991, decided to add morning hours after she found a "great cook," she said. "And his expertise is breakfast."

That cook would be David Thayer, who came on board a couple of months ago after walking by and seeing a "cooks wanted" sign. Austin's started serving breakfast on Dec. 27.

"I want to have people feel comfortable on their way to work or school or the bus stop, and to get a meal like Grandma would cook for you," Wilson said. "I want them to feel contented when they walk out the door."

Because word hasn't gotten out, an initial visit showed a minimal number of customers (actually, five) but maximum service. About the same number of customers were there a week later, and the service was just as attentive.

Wilson said that the current menu is preliminary. Items will be added after customers add their two cents.

No matter how its menu evolves, Austin's isn't likely to put you in the poorhouse.

With the most expensive item costing $4.50, a party of four can eat here for less than $30. That's including tax, tip and drinks.

If you were to order every one of the 25 current menu options, you'd get a total bill of $72.45. That includes a slice of pie and pie a la mode.

An order of eggs, biscuit or toast, choice of potato and bacon, ham or sausage ($4.50) is perfect for a hungry breakfaster, not to mention a carb-lover's dream.

The scrambled eggs were just moist enough, the three slices of bacon were plenty, and the whole-wheat toast was buttered and came with sides of jelly. The hash browns were a better choice than the home fries, which were fairly pedestrian cubed potato bits.

The Swiss and mushroom omelet ($3.50) was a fluffy bit of heaven with more Swiss melted over the top of it. The side of home fries would have dazzled with some added seasoning or onion and peppers.

There's not much on the menu for Atkins types, but the pigs in a blanket ($3.50) comes close. Three sausages each are rolled up in individual pancakes — OK, we said close to Atkins.

But we like carbs, so we opted for the cinnamon french toast ($3). Rather than just a slice of bread, one of the two pieces actually was one of Austin's house-made cinnamon rolls sliced lengthwise and battered. A side of syrup was unnecessary to add to the happy group of sweet flavors. The other piece of bread was a more traditional slice, so next time we'll request cinnamon rolls all the way.

Kids — and childlike adults — will enjoy the bear cake ($1.50). It's a large pancake with two small pancake ears and a chef-designed face that uses such culinary tools as whipped cream or chocolate chips.

It's hard to dismiss a dish that costs less than a gallon of gas, but the chocolate-chip hot cakes ($2.99) were not to our liking.

The two cakes came out looking misshapen, which was fine. We were there to grub, not to study geometry.

Unfortunately, they also were burnt. So burnt that we sometimes couldn't tell where the chocolate chips began and the burnt sections ended.

The biscuit and gravy ($1.25) was better. Thick and gooey white country gravy was layered over a fluffy biscuit. The gravy tasted creamy and nonthreatening and had bites of sausage in it to add more flavor, with the biscuit sopping up the flavors like a sponge.

After our meals, "stuffed" was an appropriate description for us, so no one ordered ice cream. There's always next time. . . .