Breakfast is going well, this week was the first full weekend and we made it through with no disasters, I am ditching that late night thing for now though. Here's what my schedule was looking like:
Thursday - work from 9:30 am to around 9 pm.
Friday - get up at 4 am, this requires two alarms set at opposite sides of the room just out of reach of my bed, get to work by 5 am to prep for breakfast. Breakfast ends at 11 am, put everything up and clean the stoves and surrounding area. Take care of any boss stuff (bank/store runs, payroll/accounting, stuff like that) and get home around 2:30, nap 'til about 8 pm and then back to work for the late night stuff. Sell 6 slices to three very drunk people at 10:15 pm then absolutely nothing 'til about 1:30 am when the drunks would start wandering past on their way to their cars as bars were closing. Sell about 6 more slices. Clean up and either sleep at the cafe on my cot or drive home and sleep there (cafe sleep is sucky, but good for about an hour more rack time), get up in time to get back to work by 5 am.
Saturday - Same as above.
Sunday - Back to work by 5 am and done and on my way home by 1 pm. Nap. Mostly a day off.
Monday - Boss shit in the morning, then off for the day. Woohoo.
Tuesday - Regular day, pretty much 9:30 am to 9 pm. Cooking, washing dishes and prep.
Wednesday and Thursday - Same as Tuesday.
Rinse and repeat.
So, yeah, fuck that late night stuff...for now. I still think it's a good idea with potential to make some good money, but not at this time of the year. Besides, it was making me stupid.
Breakfast though is going well, not real busy, but that's good. This is a completely different way of cooking than I'm used to at work. Pizzas you make and put in the oven and then you've got seven minutes to take care of other things. Everything is either prepared in the oven or from the steam table or salad bench. It can get pretty hectic on an extremely busy day, but one person can feed the fifty or so people in a reasonable about of time with little trouble. During breakfast service even a small table can throw you into the weeds...eggs are poaching, biscuits are warming in the oven, bacon and sausage frying, gravy thickening, pancakes overcooking in a second, grits turning from soup into glue as soon as you turn your back on them...and, as you can see from the pic, I don't have a flat top, it all happens in separate pans and it can spiral into chaos pretty quickly.
I've never been a short-order cook, but it's getting better, I'm figuring things out, fine tuning with nearly every order that comes in. It will get easier. I just hope that it stays slow until I find my way a little better.
Around here the Mexican breakfast is king, lots of stuff with tortillas, red and green chile sauces, and beans. And I love that. There are few things I enjoy more than huevos rancheros with pinto beans and a couple warm flour tortillas to scoop it all up with. But every restaurant in town has it on the menu and I wanted to do something different to stand out, so I went with the menu below. It's definitely Southern inspired, some of it is what I grew up eating as a kid, and I guarantee you're not going to find biscuits with chocolate gravy on any other menu in Lincoln County...I'd be surprised to see it on any menu in the state. So far, no one not related to me has ordered it, but a lady this morning did ask if I had some bacon drippings for her grits (hell yeah I did) and a couple from Virginia said that their breakfast today (biscuits with sausage gravy, fried tomatoes, and sausage) was the best they'd had since leaving home. So, I'm finding my audience.
Pretty much everything is made from scratch except for the puff pastry, I buy frozen 3" rounds for the 'nests'. The bacon is cured in-house and the sausage is also house-made. Biscuits are from scratch.
I hope you enjoy.
The Rio Plate – 2 Eggs, your choice of Bacon or Sausage, potatoes and a biscuit $3.95
Nests – Light, crisp puff pastry shells topped with one of our four sauces and two poached eggs.
Florentine – Creamed spinach and hollandaise sauce. $5.95
Creole – Spicy shrimp jambalaya. $4.95
Moroccan – Spice infused tomato sauce. $4.95
Jacksonville – Sausage gravy. $3.95
Griddle Cakes – Short $3.95 Tall $4.95
Toast Lafayette – French toast with a crunchy, golden crust $4.95
Maple syrup, apricot syrup, blackstrap molasses, and honey are available
Biscuits and Gravy – Two buttermilk biscuits with your choice of gravy. $3.95
Cream, Sausage, or Chocolate
Sweet rice - Who says morning grains have to be healthy? $3.45
Sides -
Sausage (2) - $1.95
Grits - $.95
Biscuit - $.95
Rice - $.95
Fried tomatoes - $1.95
Beverages –
Coffee $.50
Hot Tea $1.00
Fountain soft drinks or milk $1.50
Bottled soft drinks or juice $2.00
6 comments:
You know. If I lived nearby I would there EVERY morning...( I would also be the size of a small horse))
I absolutely LOVE american breakfasts...in New York we would live in Pershing Square pancake house on 42nd street...oh the memories of eggs benedict! sigh
thanks for the glimpse into your world eric... this is why I love blogging... the window into someone else's life......
john
ps you work too hard
Salivating. I have to get up early to take Bing to the airport (she gets a warm week in Phoenix!) and now all I want to do is stop by your place, have some toast lafayette and a cup of really strong coffee with real cream and then shoot the shit with you for a while. Compare notes on the state of the world.
That would be so nice. Instead, I'll take my cranky daughter out for breakfast before school and then go to work....
I love breakfast food! I order Eggs Benedict... but with strip bacon rather than Canadian bacon. And, if the place has good biscuits, I prefer it on a biscuit rather than an English muffin. And if the eggs are sunny side up or over easy rather than poached, that's fine, too. So, yeah, by the time I'm done with it, it's no longer Eggs Benedict...but it's still damn good.
Do you serve breakfast all day? Because if I stumble into your place late at night after one too many beers, biscuits with sausage gravy are exactly what I need.
what is buiscuits and gravy?
John,
Biscuits and gravy are to die for. But, if you are a diabetic, like me....this could be literally to DIE for as they are laden with carbs. I only eat them when I am feeling a little suicidal. And then, I only eat one. Not the two biscuits that are generally offered.
I actually do better with eating a pancake than eating biscuits and gravy.
mmmm I will have a double order of buttermilk biscuits and chocolate gravy and a STRONG cup of coffee or two with real cream please.
Hey I am running more I need the energy okay! :O)
John you and Maria come over here and sit with me :O), it will be fun!
Post a Comment