#14  MISSISSIPPI – A Diamond In The Rough

 

What do you eggs benedict me to do girl? I got muffin left to say

(You butter come up with somethin'.)

What do you eggs benedict me to do girl? I got muffin left to say.

You left such a waffle toast in my mouth. You biscuit out of town today.

-           - From The Breakfast Blues as recorded by Trout Fishing in America

We arrived in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the birthplace of the blues. Clarksdale lies in the Mississippi Delta region, one of the poorest areas in America. I didn’t expect much in terms of finding a decent breakfast place. Maybe a small diner where you could get grits and a biscuit covered with gravy. What we did find was an amazing establishment that exceeded all stereotypical ideas about backwater Mississippi.

Yazoo Pass
Clarksdale, Mississippi

AMBIENCE:  Yazoo Pass is named after a small waterway leading from the Mississippi River to the Coldwater River, just north of Clarksdale. It played a part in General Grant’s attempt to capture Vicksburg during the Civil War. Grant had the not so brilliant idea of bursting a levee on the Mississippi, flooding the Pass, and allowing his warships to proceed to a number of connecting rivers that led to the eastern outskirts of Vicksburg. The Union didn’t go very far before arriving at a hastily built Confederate fort made of cotton bales. There they met an ignominious defeat and retreated back to Arkansas.  This Northerner was hoping for better luck at the Yazoo Pass restaurant.

The restaurant sits smack in the middle of a central city Clarksdale that has seen much better days. Upon first seeing the restaurant, it appeared to be an oasis surrounded by buildings that have lost their will to live. The first thing that grabbed our attention were the nice tables and chairs out front along with a few potted plants. This could have been a scene out of SoHo or some other hipster area of a major metropolitan area. The second thing that grabbed our attention was their storefront sign. Espresso Bar? Bistro? Really? In the Mississippi Delta?  Parking was certainly no problem as there were very few cars on the street.

I uttered a WOW upon entering the restaurant. The large space (which was a former Five and Dime store)exuded both class and comfort. The tables were accompanied by wicker chairs and there was a corner that could put many living rooms to shame. Large plate glass windows in the front allowed sunlight to accentuate the immaculately clean and handsome interior.

There were no other customers in the place! Where was everyone? I had read that the Yazoo Pass was a community gathering place but apparently the community was at work, sleeping late, or just doesn’t eat breakfast out on a Wednesday morning.

 5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  I went with the Custom Breakfast Sandwich where you could pick and choose the bread and ingredients. My custom is to stuff as much as possible into a breakfast sandwich. I asked for scrambled eggs, Applewood smoked bacon, and cheddar cheese between a cut biscuit. When it arrived on a china plate I was in awe. When I bit into it, I tasted perfection. It was the best breakfast sandwich I have ever had. I sincerely doubt, I will ever again have a better one. The bacon was plentiful and cooked perfectly, the melted cheddar cheese nicely permeated the fluffy scrambled eggs. It was the biscuit however that set this masterpiece apart. It was obviously fresh out of the oven. It was buttery, fluffy, and flaky all at the same time. I could have eaten three of these sandwiches with no guilt whatsoever. It easily deserved a Breakfast Across America Certificate of Excellence.

The Healthy One ordered the Breakfast Bowl which contained Greek yogurt, fresh berries and topped with house made granola. She absolutely marveled at the taste and declared it her favorite breakfast, to date, of the tour.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  Since this was advertised as an espresso bar, we splurged and ordered cappuccinos. They were very tasty. I never thought that, one day, I would be drinking cappuccino in rural Mississippi.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

SERVICE: You ordered at the cash register and they brought you your food. The young lady at the register was very pleasant. She gave us a number to display on our table for the food deliverer to find us. It shouldn’t have been much of a challenge given that we were the only customers in the restaurant, but I guess protocol is protocol.

COST: $24.75 with tax. For someone from the Washington DC area, the prices were a tiny bit of a bargain, but I could see how most of the Clarksdale populace would see this as an expensive breakfast.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT CLARKSDALE:

“The land was perfectly flat and level but
it shimmered like the wing of a lighted dragonfly.
It seemed strummed, as though it were an
instrument and something had touched it.”

-         -  From “Delta Wedding” by Mississippi native Eudora Welty

I was fascinated by the countryside of the Mississippi Delta; so flat, with cotton fields extending far to the horizon. Clarksdale is one of a handful of agricultural and trading hubs of the region. It has a population of about 18,000 of which half live below the poverty line. The median income is $23,733 and the population has declined 15% since 2000.

Downtown Clarksdale


Although it is poor in monetary resources, it is rich in a cultural past. It is the birthplace of the blues. Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Sam Cooke all lived in Clarksdale and Bessie Smith died in Clarksdale. Tennessee Williams lived here as a boy. The city is doing its best to live off its cultural tradition. It holds a number of music festivals during the year and maintains the Delta Blues Museum. There are a couple of juke joints and blues clubs, including Ground Zero, partly owned by native son Morgan Freeman.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          

      Walked through the William Faulkner home in Oxford MS.

-           Did a long walk through the Ole Miss campus in Oxford MS.

-          Walked through the fabulous B. B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola MS.

SPECIAL MENTION:

I didn’t want to cover in this blog what we did for lunch and dinner. It was to be about breakfast. However, we had such a great experience in Indianola, Mississippi that I wanted to mention our lunch at Betty’s Place. You can get a delicious cheeseburger with fries for about $6. Our waitress treated us like her own grandkids. Mike, who is Betty’s brother and worked the cash register, has to be the most jovial man in the world. As we were leaving Mike pulled out his camera and said he wanted to take our picture. I said sure as long as he pulled Betty out of the kitchen and had a picture taken with my camera as well. He happily obliged.

October 26, 2016

NEXT UP: Louisiana

#13  TENNESSEE – Chattanooga Chew Chew

 

Lord preserve us and protect us,
We’ve been drinking whiskey ‘fore breakfast.

-             - Chorus from the traditional bluegrass song Whiskey Before Breakfast.

We asked a number of local Chattanoogans where they would recommend  having breakfast and they were unanimous in naming this restaurant located in the newly revitalized South Side neighborhood:

   

The Bluegrass Grill
Chattanooga, Tennessee

AMBIENCE:  The Bluegrass Grill is owned by a retired orthodox minister who opened it in 2007. Previously, he had owned restaurants in Memphis and Charlottesville VA.( I believe the current owner of the restaurant in C-Ville has kept the Bluegrass name.)

A large number of Yelp reviewers warned about the inevitability of standing in line for a good amount of time to eat breakfast at The Bluegrass Grill. They all added that it was worth it. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky because we were seated right away. Maybe this good fortune was due to it being a Tuesday morning and the sun hadn’t risen yet. 

The place is in a refurbished early 20th century brick building with its original wooden floor.  There are perhaps only about ten tables and five stools at a counter. Although there are few tables, the space seemed roomy because of the high ceiling and a magnificent mural of the Appalachians behind the counter. Bluegrass music played softly in the background.

The clientele seemed mostly made up of people catching breakfast before going off to work. I did not see anyone who appeared to have had whiskey before breakfast.

I felt very comfortable here. I could have lingered but there was a line starting to form and we had a long drive to Oxford, Mississippi ahead of us.

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  I ordered the Denver Omelet, along with a biscuit and grits.

The omelet was very tasty; the ingredients very fresh. By the way, I learned that the Denver omelet didn’t originate in Denver CO nor was it named for Bob Denver. According to James Beard, it was a dish eaten by cowboys and Chinese immigrants and originally called a Western omelet. Beard said that when the railroads reached Denver it was then renamed for public relations purposes. 

The word grits comes from the Old English grytt meaning coarse meal. Many people think it comes from New English and means “particles of sand” which is appropriate to the taste.

When I saw my grits arrive at the table in a bowl, I had a terrible flashback of me as a young lad gagging on the taste of Cream of Wheat. Grits are not made from wheat but from corn. These grits were pretty good – creamy with a slight corn taste but still on the bland side. The Bluegrass Grill offered me three different house made hot sauces to add some pizzazz to those grits. I went with the tongue-numbing Garlic Habanero Sauce.  Mission accomplished.

The Healthy One ordered the Mediterranean Frittata, biscuit, and chose fruit over grits. I’m not sure, but I think frittata is Italian for “eggs mixed with a lot of other stuff”. She thought it was delicious. Both of us agreed that the biscuits were excellent.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  What’s up with the weak coffee that we have had in the South? This tasted almost as bad as instant coffee. Maybe this is why Southerners speak slowly - not enough caffeine. I am also a little perturbed about the coffee cup they gave me. Was this intentional or random?

1 1/2 stars out of 5

SERVICE: Service was friendly and efficient. Only two people were working both the room and the counter which made them very busy. Nevertheless, they seemed to know how to handle the demands. The food came out quickly and we were offered coffee refills often. A half point deduction for giving me the “old person” coffee cup.

   

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COST: $26.72 with tax and tip.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT CHATTANOOGA:

Chattanooga is the fourth largest city in Tennessee with a population of about 175,000. It may turn out to be the largest city visited on the Breakfast Across America tour. The meaning of the city’s name depends upon who you ask. It could either be the Cherokee word for “hawk’s nest” or the Creek Indian word for “rock rising to a point” (referring to Lookout Mountain). In 1969 Chattanooga was named America’s most polluted city. Since then it has cleaned its air, rebuilt its waterfront on the Tennessee River, added a world renowned aquarium, and became a hub for the arts in the southern Appalachians. It is also known as Gig City because it has one of the fastest publically owned fiber-optic networks in the world. Data is transferred at one gigabyte per second which is 50 times faster than the average household network provides. To put this in terms most of us can understand, it takes 33 seconds to download a two-hour, high-definition movie in Chattanooga, compared with 25 minutes for those with an average high-speed broadband connection in the rest of the country. On top of all this, Outside Magazine has named Chattanooga Best Town in America twice (most recently in 2015) bolstering its growing reputation as a haven for numerous outdoor activities.

We spent two days in and around Chattanooga starting with a very impressive farmer’s market that attracted a couple thousand people.  Because the weather was so nice, we felt the need to be outside rather than inside the infamous aquarium watching fish swim in circles so we spent most of our time just walking around the city. We especially enjoyed the public art which is pervasive across the city but seems especially prominent in the up and coming South Side. This is a copper sculpture we liked called “Party Dress” which was located right outside the Bluegrass Grill.

This breakfast appropriate mural was just around the corner.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-           - Took a six mile walk through the city including crossing the beautiful Walnut St. Walking Bridge over the Tennessee River.

-           - Walked at the Chickamauga Battlefield where the Rebs kicked our butt and then did an extensive hike up and down Lookout Mountain where the Yanks had grabbed an impressive victory.

October 25, 2016

NEXT UP: Mississippi

#12 VIRGINIA – Veggie Manifesto

 

It was time to venture down South, the land of biscuits, sausage gravy, bacon, and grits. I felt that a lot of calories would be in my future so I thought maybe I should start healthy and then build momentum to the inevitable fat-fest. I found a Virginia restaurant to check out that emphasizes vegetarian and vegan meals. The Healthy One was both gleeful and a little worried about my mental state.

The Little Grill Collective
Harrisonburg, Virginia

 

AMBIENCE:  Karl Marx would be very proud of The Little Grill Collective.  It is a worker owned, democratically managed cooperative. I learned from their website that every employee can become an owner:

• ·         After working a minimum of 6 months.
• ·         After shadowing worker-owners to learn about different facets within the business.
• ·         After completing a self-directed project.
• ·         After buying into the cooperative to “solidify their ownership”.

Worker-owners meet a couple of times a week and all decisions about the business are made by consensus. Other statements on the website clued me in that this place was a throwback to the flower power days of the 60s. The Collective hires professionals to come in to work on the interpersonal skills of the workers. Dishwashing is done by hand to save on water and dependency on expensive technology.  All leftover food waste is used for compost at a local farm. Five percent of profit goes to charity. Napkins are optional and sleeves are encouraged. (Okay, I made this last one up.)

The restaurant sits outside downtown in a mostly industrial/commercial area. I knew I was really near when I spotted a number of cars with those bumper stickers that say COEXIST parked along the curb.

It was a Sunday morning and the place was very crowded. We were told that it would be a 20-30 minute wait and that they would text me when the table was ready. It was a pleasant morning so we lingered outside with others who were staring intently into their devices. I imagined that they were all reading the on-line version of Mother Jones or Organic Life magazine. I myself started playing on-line Yahtzee.

We got the text after about 20 minutes and were brought to our table. The place is small and loud but there was decent room between the 12 or so tables. I did spot a couple of young men with tie-dyed t-shirts. The décor was eclectic to say the least.

What do a giant stuffed catfish toy, a three speed bicycle, and a picture of Martin Luther King have in common?

Given what I read on the website about the Little Grill’s heavy focus on sustainability, I had to check out the bathroom to see if they had a composting toilet. Not to be, but they did have Dr. Bonner’s fair trade soap!

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  The menu was chock full of “alternative proteins to help reduce meat consumption”. These included such scary sounding items as tofu scrambler, veggie chili over eggs, love burger, and groovy gravy. I decided to play it safe and ordered a tall stack (3) of Apple Cider & Oat Pancakes which was described as containing local baked apples, cinnamon, maple syrup, apple cider, whole wheat flour, and organic oats. I found it interesting that the menu stated a short stack (2) cost $6.50 and the tall stack (3) cost $9.75. That means that I saved exactly zero per pancake by “going tall”. I believe the traditional capitalist practice is that the more pancakes you order the price per pancake declines. For instance, at Dot’s in Vermont, one berry-berry  pancake cost $5.25; two cost $5.95 or $2.97 per pancake; and three cost $6.50 or $2.17 per pancake. These people are obviously not capitalists. All of their pancakes were priced this way. The Collective's pricing scheme seemed an egalitarian/socialist acknowledgement of the rights of each and every pancake.

The Healthy One ordered scrambled free range eggs, a whole wheat biscuit, and whaaaaaaaat?.  Is that bacon?

Me: “I didn’t see that on the menu”

Healthy One: “It’s up there on the chalkboard next to the soysage.”

Me: “I didn’t hear you order it”

Healthy One: “I think you were too busy trying to figure out the per pancake prices.”

The pancakes turned out to be delicious. At one point, while I was taking a breather, I think my stack appeared happy, thinking it was going to get a trip to the compost pile at a local farm.

I did rally and finished it off. Before it was gone, The Healthy One asked if she could have a couple of bites. “Of course”, I said, “just let me have a little of your bacon”. Ready to pounce, I noticed that there was no bacon left to be had. The Healthy One had engaged in a little bacon gamesmanship by finishing the bacon before asking for bites of the pancake!  This was terribly unsettling. The rest of the Breakfast Tour was in jeopardy. I should have refused to share my pancake, but in the spirit of the Little Grill peace, love, and harmony vibe inside and the COEXIST bumper stickers outside, I let her have a couple of bites.

5 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The fair trade coffee was, well, just fair.

 

3 stars out of 5

SERVICE: Our server was delightful. She was friendly, chatty, and answered all our questions. She showed no stress from having to cater to a very busy room. Those interpersonal skill consultations really paid off. It turns out that she was not a worker-owner but rather a “trial member”.  She said she still needed to come up with an idea for a self-directed projected. I suggested that she do an econometric analysis of the marginal cost, marginal revenue, and pricing of pancakes. She answered that she would be right back with our check.

 

5 out of 5 stars

COST: $26.00 with tax and tip. ($1.10 of that will go to charity.)

A FEW WORDS ABOUT HARRISONBURG:

Harrisonburg, a city of about 50,000, sits in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley next to truck happy I-81.

But what is that smell?  

Harrisonburg is home to two colleges: Eastern Mennonite University and James Madison University. One of them has a bit of a reputation as a party school. Can you guess which one?  There is an attractive downtown which had undergone extensive revitalization. 

The air sort of smells like dog breath. 

Travel and Leisure magazine picked it as one of America’s favorite towns.  The city appeared to be very bike-friendly.

I googled the Harrisonburg smell and most people likened it to the smell of dog food. Fair enough, dog breath is caused by dog food. Harrisonburg is famous for its poultry feed production. The process involving a mix of molasses, corn, and other organic byproducts gives of off an odor that is prevalent throughout the area on warm, humid days. The locals apparently can’t smell it.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          Walked from the Little Grill through downtown Harrisonburg to the handsome campus of James Madison University and back.

October 23, 2016

NEXT UP: Tennessee

#11  PENNSYLVANIA – Tortilla Chips and Dips

 

On occasion, I’ve come into our kitchen in the morning and a half filled bag of tortilla chips, left over from the previous night, has stared at me from the counter as I prepare the coffee. I think to myself, maybe I’ll just have a chip or two while the coffee is brewing. Two chips become three, and then four, and then I lose all control and the bag is empty before I know it. It’s a pretty satisfying breakfast and it does provide some fiber. So it was with great pleasure that I found tortilla chips on the breakfast menu of our stop in Pennsylvania.

On Orange
Lancaster, Pennsylvania

AMBIENCE:  On Orange is, guess what!, on Orange Street in downtown Lancaster. This was our first urban breakfast experience of the tour. The building dates back to the 1850s, but the inside feels anything but old. It is more reminiscent of a hipster’s studio apartment, with plenty of original artwork and colorful furniture. The restaurant has two floors and since we were there at the opening bell and the first customers, we were seated on the main, upstairs floor. This was preferable as the upstairs has plenty of natural light whereas downstairs, which you need to visit if you need the bathroom, had a subterranean feel which may be nice for a candlelit dinner but not breakfast.

5 out of 5 stars.

FOOD:  I ordered the tortilla chips. It was no surprise that I wasn’t going to get a bag of Tostitos. Rather these chips were pumped up, souped up, and made over into something that didn’t belong in a bag. The dish was called Chilaquiles. I completely butchered the pronunciation when I ordered. The waiter said with a wry grin, “Oh you mean the blah, blah, blah”. Okay.  Apparently, there are as many versions of Chilaquiles, a traditional Mexican dish, as there are versions of say, lasagna. On Orange’s version had tortilla chips simmered in a spicy red chili chorizo sausage sauce, avocado, queso fresco, and topped with two eggs. Possibly, this was a Puerto Rican version since Lancaster’s population is 30 percent Puerto Rican. It also came with awesome rye toast.

I thought the dish was very tasty. It wasn’t as spicy as I expected, but then again biology says that as you age your taste buds decline in size and numbers. I really fear the day when spicy red chili chorizo sausage sauce tastes the same as Cream of Wheat.

The Healthy One ordered “The Old Stand By” which was two eggs, roasted tomatoes, bacon, and multi-grain toast.

She said that everything tasted great. I got to try a piece of her multi-grain toast which was as delicious as my rye toast. The bread is from the Le Bus Bakery in Philadelphia and gets the Breakfast Across America Certificate of Excellence.

The meal ended with a nice surprise and I suggest that breakfast places across America consider this practice. We were presented with two small oatmeal raisin cookies freshly baked from a nearby bakery.

4 3/4 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  The coffee was extraordinary. This makes the second place in a row where I could drink their coffee all day. I was told the coffee was the Star Barn blend from the Lancaster County Coffee Roasters.

5 stars out of 5

SERVICE: The service was efficient to say the least. This is one of those places that had a specialization of labor that would make Henry Ford proud. Person A showed us to our table. Person B asked if we wanted coffee. Person C brought the coffee to the table. Person D took our order. Person C brought the food to our table. Person B refilled our coffee cups. Person D checked if we were happy. Person A brought us our cookies. Person B presented us with the bill. Person D took our payment. Persons A & D were very friendly. Persons B & C didn’t have much to say. Everyone was dressed as if they were going to a Springsteen concert.

  

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COST: $28.17 with tax. A very good value.

THREE FACTS ABOUT LANCASTER:

 

1) Lancaster was once the capital of the United States – for one day. The Continental Congress convened in Lancaster on September 27, 1777 a day after the British marched into Philadelphia. The delegates decided that the 60 miles between Lancaster and Philadelphia was not enough and the next day moved another 20 miles to the west to York.

2) Peeps were invented in Lancaster.

3) Lancaster is home to Franklin and Marshall College. The college sports teams are known as the Diplomats. Both athletes and non-athletes are affectionately known as Dips.

 In 1853, Franklin College named after Benjamin Franklin, merged with Marshall College, named after John Marshall, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court.  There are statutes of these two gentlemen on campus. The statue of Marshall is a fairly conventional representation of the famous jurist, pigeon poop and all.

On the other hand, located about ten feet from Marshall, is Franklin’s somewhat strange and unconventional personification.

The statue is known as Ben-In-A-Box. According to one article, late at night, students urinate at his base as an initiation of sorts. At first, I could not believe that this blasphemy could take place. I then examined my picture more closely and saw that all the grass around the base of the statue was dead. My conclusion: Dip Drips Did Drop!

Upon further research, I discovered that elsewhere Franklin gets little respect. For instance, the Ben Franklin statue on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania is also constantly being used as a toilet.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

Walking around Lancaster and the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.

September 4, 2016

NEXT UP: The Southeastern States. Check back in November for reports.

#10  CONNECTICUT – Bangers Away

We had skipped breakfast in Connecticut on our drive up to Maine due to time restrictions and it was time to make up for that omission. Because I was headed south from Upstate NY, I didn’t want to go too far afield, so I targeted the very northeastern section of Connecticut (Litchfield County) for breakfast.  The villages in Litchfield County are small and do not support a lot of eating establishments so there are not a lot of breakfast options. I did find a place that both motorcycle riders and Appalachian Trail through-hikers, two groups that I believe have big appetites, have heartedly endorsed on the internet.

Toymakers Cafe
Falls Village, Connecticut

AMBIENCE:  The café is a two story house on a street of two story houses. Really, the only thing that distinguished it from the other houses was the shingle hanging out front and the OPEN sign in the front window. The café is the main floor of the house. Seating was limited. The “living room” had one large table for eight, two tables for two, a couch and a bench. There was another small table near the kitchen. A few picnic benches were out by the parking area and there were a couple of chairs on the front porch.

I was expecting a toy theme with Slinkys, and Etch-a-Sketches hanging on the wall and beanie babies sitting on shelves. That was not the case, although I thought the cook/owner looked a lot like the toymaker Geppetto, from the Pinocchio movie. The Toymakers Café is so named because the owner has a side business called T 100 Toymakers which imports parts for vintage British motorcycles. There are a few British touches to the décor. In the bathroom, rather than a poster of the U.S. Presidents staring at you, it’s the British Prime Ministers.

Walking into the restaurant is like waking up and coming downstairs to a raucous family reunion. There were about 25 people waiting for their food and about 5 eating their food. Three toddlers at the table by the kitchen were screaming at each other while their mother was waiting in line to order. The table of eight was filled with men who had arrived on motorcycles telling their “war stories”.  All other seats, couches, benches, etc. were occupied. People were even sitting on the floor. A number of additional motorcycle riders occupied the picnic tables outside. Apparently this is a big stop for motorcyclists both because the café owner has an interest in motorcycles and because the surrounding roads are prime riding territory. These aren’t your bikers with a lot of tattoos, shirts cut off at the shoulder, and no helmets. These were more “banker bikers”, up from Westchester County NY on very expensive machines.

I got in line and ordered my breakfast. The pleasant woman taking the order wanted me to know that it would be about 40 minutes before I received my dish. 40 minutes! Feeling I had no other option, I said that was fine.  The wait was due to a combination of a large Saturday morning demand and a small supply of staff. The staff consisted of the owners, Greg who was the one and only cook, and Annie, his wife, was order taker, cook’s assistant, cashier, and keeper of the peace.

Later, as I was leaving I noticed that they had called in reinforcements and had a young lady in the kitchen, helping out.

Annie asked for my name so she could call it out when my meal was ready.  I told her it was Job. She gave me a coffee mug and directed me toward the coffee thermoses. I filled my mug and stood and watched a musical chairs-type choreography as I enjoyed some excellent coffee. As soon as a table was done and got up to leave, couch people moved to the table and the floor people moved to the couch. After tiring of watching this act repeat itself two or three times, I refilled my mug and sat outside at a picnic table. The bugs were annoying so I came back inside, refilled my mug once again and went and took a stroll around Falls Village. It only took 10 minutes to stroll around the entire town of Falls Village, population 538, but it was pleasant nonetheless. Upon my return to the café, I noticed a free chair on the front porch and grabbed it after getting more coffee.  Another 15 minutes went by with me staring at the houses across the street, when my name was called and I got my food.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars for its uniqueness. The ambience is only appreciated if you have a lot of time on your hands otherwise 2 ½ stars out of 5.

FOOD:  Wanting to keep with the British theme, I had ordered the Banger Platter. It consisted of two bangers (a type of British sausage and so-called because of the “pop” it makes while cooking), two scrambled eggs, mushrooms, tomato, and an English Muffin.

I had a serious case of the shakes due to drinking about two gallons of coffee. Holding the plate in my lap as I ate was out of the question. I used the railing of the porch as my table and this resulted in a not insignificant amount of crumbs and butter juice ending up on my shorts.

The food was excellent. The bangers were juicy and flavorful. The eggs tasted fresh.  The mushrooms and tomato, which had been sautéed in butter and garlic, were especially delicious. My only complaint was that the English Muffin could have used less butter. It tasted more like melted butter than bread.

Worth the wait? Yeah, I think so, but I hoped I would be able to get my shorts clean.

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

COFFEE:  My first mug of coffee came from the thermos labeled “Toymakers House Joe” and it was fabulous. My next mug of coffee came from the thermos labeled “Toymakers Commonwealth” and I was hooked. This coffee deserved the Breakfast Across America Certificate of Excellence. According to the label it was a farm-direct blend of Brazilian and Honduran coffees combined to produce notes of spiced roasted nut, and spiced hot chocolate.

5 stars out of 5

SERVICE: It was pretty much self-serve.

N/A out of 5 stars

COST: $14.00 with tax. It is cash only but I read that they do take British pounds.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT FALLS VILLAGE:  Falls Village is the second smallest village in Connecticut. It has a nice looking inn, a children’s theater, and a municipal building. The Appalachian Trail runs through the village. The streets are as peaceful as a ghost town. On my walk, I did not see another human being nor did I hear the usual sounds of dogs barking or automobiles starting up. It was Labor Day Weekend and maybe everyone was sleeping in, waiting for the line to subside at Toymakers.

Google maps lists the Toymakers Café as being in Canaan CT. Carole King had a big hit called “Been To Canaan” which according to one biography, is named for both the biblical land and this Connecticut town in which she and her husband bought a farm that they rarely used.  The truth is that the Toymakers Café is in Falls Village and this description, which I found on the wall of the café, explains the nuances of the local geography:

It is really quite simple. The town of Canaan contains the village of Falls Village, and it also contains the hamlet called South Canaan. Canaan Falls is there too, formerly called the “Falls”. In the town of North Canaan is the village of Canaan. So are the places known as East Canaan and Canaan Valley. Both towns share Canaan Mountain. This bothers no one except government officials and officers, newspaper editors and reporters, and foreigners. Everyone else understands.

BURN THOSE BREAKFAST CALORIES OFF:

-          The walk around Falls Village burned the caloric equivalent of a carrot stick.

September 3, 2016

NEXT UP: Pennsylvania