Retired schoolteacher Mary Branch served her first meals at the Ranch in 1956 and grandson Michael Trauner is following in her footsteps with great skill, serving back to the farm fare built around freshly picked produce from nearby fields framing beef, chicken, seafood and ham at terrific value for the money prices. Lunches for $6.95; dinners from $8 to $17. Many of my other favorite old house feederies are on the Gold Coast:
Auberge Le Grillon
6900 N. Federal Highway 561/997-6888
Boca Raton
Since 1979 this Inn of the Cricket has been a minuscule marvel, an intimate escape for indulging in the classics from lobster bisque to white chocolate mousse with Dover sole meuniere and apricot duckling in between. The new bistro menu, introduced in February with English and French suppers and 17 dinners priced from $12 to $20, is served nightly. Tea is served daily from 4:30 to 6. There are fixed price menus as well as the regular a la carte entrees pegged from $19 to $32.
Bennardo Ristorante
116 N.E. Sixth Ave. (Northbound U.S. 1) Delray Beach 561/274-0051
The Bennardos, chef Andrew by the burners and wife Josephine out front, are in their seventh season of providing an Italian home away from home in a 1925 highway hugger with easy to recommend osso buco, risotto pescatore, veal and lobster combinations. Dinner, entrees $15 to $22, is served Monday through Saturday.
Cafe du Parc
612 Federal Highway 561/845-0529
Lake Park
Opened the year after the Auberge by French couple Pierre and Anne-Marie Latuberne, who created a provincial charmer and great escape from the highway bustle roaring past. Chef Pierre produces the continental classics favored by his loyal legion of fans -- from beef Wellington and shrimp scampi to rack of lamb and veal Normande. Dinner, entrees $19 to $30, nightly.
Crab Pot's Old House
300 E. Ocean Ave. 561/533-5220
Lantana
This muchly expanded house is not only the oldest in Lantana, built in 1889, it is the oldest waterfront seafood restaurant in the entire state, and it takes full advantage of its wide window panorama of the Intracoastal Waterway. Start your escape at the chickee bar and retreat to the rugged dining room, recently redone in splashy Caribbean colors, for authentic Chesapeake crab chowder and crab cakes and mouth-stretching blackened dolphin sandwiches. Lunch and dinner, entrees $11 to $23, served daily.
Damiano's at the Tarrimore House
52 N. Swinton Ave. 561/272-4706
Delray Beach
This reborn 1924 home of two-time Mayor Jack Saunders, across from Old School Square, specializes in what owners Anthony and Lisa Damiano, veterans of New York City's Russian Tea Room, lovingly have labeled transcontinental cuisine -- a worldwide magical merger of culinary highlights, happily displayed in a wide variety of special charity and winemaker dinners. In recent weeks, they have taken over a much smaller house, Tony and Lisa's Cucina Nostalgica at 461 E. Palmetto Park Road in Boca Raton, where they plan to do more of the same. Dinner in Delray, entrees $19 to $25, is served Wednesday through Sunday.
French Quarter
215 S.E. 8th Ave. 954/463-8000
Fort Lauderdale
There's a rich history to this 1920s blockhouse built by the mayor and used for years as Red Cross headquarters and hurricane shelter. Super over-achiever Louis Flematti, who already had Cafe de Paris across the parking lot in his portfolio, took it over in 1976, doubling our pleasure with a veritable greenhouse of growth, providing many romantic tables for two and a menu that sings of New Orleans as well as the French provinces. Lunch is served Monday through Friday and dinner, entrees $15 to $35, Monday through Saturday.
Giancarlo
102 N.E. 6th Ave. (Northbound U.S. 1)
Delray Beach 561/274-2012
This ultra-informal, 1929 homey next door neighbor of owner Bennardo specializes in pastas, thin crust crispy New York-style pizza fresh out of the brick oven and chef Jose's homemade calzone, stromboli and cannoli. Wall portraits of the Italian greats are by Bennardo's father, and there's live entertainment in the patio between the two houses on the weekends. Lunch is served Monday through Friday and dinner, entrees $7 to $11, nightly.
La Petite Maison
366 E. Palmetto Park Road 561/750-7483
Boca Raton
Petite is indeed the word for this spring-bright setting watched over happily by the charming Sylvie Augier, rightfully proud of her husband Guy's culinary mastery, from fillets of beef with roquefort or a mass of morels, to broiled Maine lobster tails, rack of lamb and Dover sole meuniere, $25 in season. Lunch is served Tuesday through Friday and dinner, entrees $19.50 to $26, nightly.
La Vieille Maison
770 E. Palmetto Park Road 561/391-6701
Boca Raton
Last remaining of the old house collection that used to be in Fort Lauderdale (Casa Vecchia) and as far afield as Monterey, and one that glistens with Old World class and flows with fine wines, available at their Great Tastes shop a few blocks away -- a place filled with eye-grabbing "Gotta Have It Gifts." In the old house, I gotta have the gratin of fresh snails saluted with wild mushrooms, beef marrow and roasted garlic splashed with red wine, followed by roast squab with vanilla bean sauce and apple-yam compote, the fillet of beef with a clump of cèpes in a fine Madeira sauce, the potato-encrusted sea bass or the pompano when available. For finishers no one can compete with the eye-popping lemon cr?pe soufflé with a rich raspberry sauce. Dinner, reservations obligatory, served nightly, and there's a four-course fixed-price menu for $64, including salad, a fine cheese cart and outstanding desserts. A la carte entrees range from $13 to $42.
Reed's River House
301 S.W. 3rd Ave. 954/525-7661
Fort Lauderdale
Edinburgh-born Ron Morrison -- who blessed us all with the Evangeline and Mistral restaurants in Fort Lauderdale's happily reborn ocean-hugging strip and then went on to revolutionize the Riverside Hotel food and beverage operations -- worked the same kind of magic on this pair of joined-together memory banks anchoring a strategic slice of the stunningly successful Riverwalk and featuring food of the Southeast, from Carolina Low Country to the tropical Keys. Open for lunch and dinner, entrees $16 to $23, daily, and Sunday Brunch.
Sundy House
106 S. Swinton Ave. 561/272-5678
Delray Beach
The newest of our old house favorites, the 1902 mansion of the mayor, opened in December after megabuck restoration and magnificent landscaping with bridges over romantic ponds, waterfalls, tropical trees and an interior that's a knockout. Brilliantly designed with soft Southwest colors befitting the New Mexico experience of Swiss restaurateurs Sandra and Filip Rady. Start with the sensational black bean soup and finish with bread pudding flattered with Grand Marnier and crème Anglaise. For lunch fill in the courses with shrimp quesadilla or the tuna sashimi sandwich with seaweed salad and wasabi mayo; at dinner, chicken roulade or braised red snapper on a bed of creole paella rice. Lunch and dinner, entrees $15 to $25, everyday, and there's Sunday brunch.