View from the Mountain: The Elusive Great Saturday Morning Breakfast

The older the you get the more that you find excuses to go out to eat. The pandemic has complicated that by putting all sorts of pressures on restaurants, not the least of which is staffing. My mother and almost every lady that I have met including my wife has held that breakfast is their favorite meal to enjoy outside the home.

Turns out that getting a good breakfast delivered to your table in a timely fashion is much harder than one might expect. I am of the opinion that I can cook a better breakfast for up to half a dozen people than you can find just about anywhere. That's the case as long as you don't want pancakes or waffles, then I give in and agree to a meal at iHOP. We roll the dice with service and hope for the best.

We lived on the side of a mountain in the county outside of Roanoke, Virginia, for over twenty wonderful years. It was a wonderful place to raise a family. We moved to the Carolina coast for the next sixteen years so I could bring a few dreams to life. We had a favorite breakfast place at the coast which we could enjoy during the nine months that the tourists were gone, but it closed as favorite restaurants sometimes do. We moved to a small town just west of Winston-Salem in the winter of 2021. It is near where I grew up in the fifties and sixties. For the last two years we have looked for a breakfast spot to call our own. We have come close, but there are no winners yet.

We thought we found one in Winston-Salem. It had been open since 1963 which just happened to the year that I got shipped off to military school in Tennessee. The first couple of times we went it was great. The third time, the service was the worst I endured in a while. We were some of the last few customers in the restaurant as we watched as a couple of waitresses stand around chatting while our food cooled on the window by them. When our food did come, no surprise, it wasn't hot. My grandson had to wait another fifteen minutes for his waffle. We were finished eating by the time he had his food. He had eaten food off our plates while waiting for his waffle. The place was closing as he finished eating. We haven't been back.

There's a new restaurant opening near us. We have hopes it will be better. Actually, if I could tell them what to do, it would be to emulate the waitresses that used to serve us at the Famous Anthony's Restaurant in SW Plaza in Roanoke, Virginia.

Walking into what we consider our home-away-from-home Famous Anthony's this morning, we found it packed with customers who were all being taken care of by the very energetic crew of waitresses. What always amazes me is how each waitress connects with her customers in a personal way and makes certain that they get what they want from the kitchen. The other impressive thing is how they work as a team. Sometimes there is a hostess, but sometimes there isn't. It doesn't matter, you always get seated quickly. Then someone will get your drinks, and it might be your waitress or another waitress who has figured out that you need something to drink. Your coffee cup might get filled by your waitress or another one who happens by and sees that you need coffee.

If you can sit back and watch it for a moment, the waitresses have time for personal interactions with each other while still delivering exceptional service to their customers. They might be occasionally irreverent towards management and even joke at some of us regulars, but it creates a wonderful atmosphere. As much as we like the quick, reasonably priced food, we really go there because we feel at home. We know many of the waitresses by first name, Wendy, Ginger, Janelle, Tasha, Jean, and Robin, last but certainly not the meekest. There are other whose faces we know, but we just haven't caught their names yet. We even know some of them well enough to tell when they have run into some challenges at work or home. Yet in spite of the many times we have gone there, it is the rare time we don't get absolutely great service.

There are restaurants that might have fancier menus or even some food that I might like better, but there is just no place where I think you will find a better team of waitresses. You might find some individual people who excel in other places, but this is a whole group of individuals who through their cooperation and dedication to doing more than a good job create an exceptional experience just as the Fishmongers do. (Full article on Teams That Work)

That particular Famous Anthony's also had very good food. I still have not found an omelet that I like better than their Chicken Philly omelet (that excludes the ones that I cook myself like the one pictured). I have not been back to that Famous A's in Roanoke in over a decade and I am sure those waitresses have moved on to something better. Still I have the memories of being a valued customer there.

Teamwork really is important in all sorts of businesses. That is a lesson I learned in my early days after college when I moved to Nova Scotia. Unfortunately, business owners rarely have the skills to create an atmosphere that fosters teamwork. I was part of some great sales teams at Apple. Then the company's philosophy changed to have teams compete against each other for the same business. Imagine the customers who sit down and have two different waitresses vying for their order. Confusing? It is absolutely confusing, and the worst way to run a business. There was sales magic at Apple during the early years, but like all magic, it was easily destroyed.

The omelet at the top of post is a recent breakfast. I do omelets much differently than most people. I call my omelets cold-pan omelets to distinguish them from the hot pans that the French often use for their omelets.

Put a pat of butter, and a tablespoon of grape seed oil in your non-stick pan on your stove burner, turn the burner on medium for about ninety seconds and then turn off.
Spread an ounce or so coarsely grated cheese over the bottom of the pan after you have evenly distributed the oil-butter mixture.
If I am using precooked sausage like what is in the one pictured, I just cut it in pieces. If I am adding mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, or onions, I precook in another pan. Mushrooms work well in the microwave as long as you drain them.
Next I beat two or three eggs (local eggs so it depends on the size) and a splash of water in a bowl until I can't beat them anymore. I love egg whites but they make omelets fall apart unless you are very careful.
Now I pour my eggs carefully into the pan where the cheese has melted on the bottom. Here I usually grind some black pepper into the pan and often add some red pepper flakes.
Next I distribute my sausage, ham, bacon or whatever across the pan with the eggs- the omelet pictured had turkey and chicken sausage
I usually find a piece of cheese (whatever needs using- blue cheese, cheddar and feta are favorites) that I crumble into the pan
I am also fond of spreading a thin last layer of spinach across the bottom of the pan- sometimes I added chopped green onions. When the lid goes on, they steam nicely.
Finally on top of the spinach and/or green onions, I sprinkle a little more shredded cheese.
Then I put a cover on the skillet and turn the heat on and set it at medium.
I put bread in the toaster oven, and I put my plate on top of the toaster oven.
I pour myself another cup of coffee and set the table.
Around three or four minutes later (depends on your stove, burner and how fast you are cooking) I check the omelet. If it is almost done. I turn the burner off, remove the pan from the burner and put it on a hot pad- leaving the lid off.
My toast is now ready, I take it out, spray with olive oil and put it back in for another minute in the toaster.
I take a non-stick spatula and work it under the omelet from the edges until it is ready to slide out of the pan.
I bring over my plate, slide half the omelet out of the pan onto the plate and fold the rest over.