Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 12, 1995 TAG: 9504130024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH MACY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
B.M., we call it. Before Max, our 13-month-old.
Young, carefree and childless, we carried two-for-one dinner coupons - and knew how to use them. No wrestlng a diaper bag and high chair. No worrying about errant food torpedoing onto the couple in the next booth.
Now the days of leisurely lunches and decadent dinners out are a distant memory - like whole milk and non-fat-free foods. We've become connoiseurs of the only meal guaranteed not to coincide with Cranky Hour: breakfast.
Which is what spurred this highly subjective inquiry into the area's best breakfast foods.
We learned many things in our quest, including the definition of "monkey dish," the discovery of Miss Kitty being alive and well in Salem, and that back-to-back breakfasts on a weekday significantly hamper work productivity.
Searching for the perfect scone, or the best buttered biscuit? Read on.
MY FAVORITE OMELETTES - I haven't been able to make pretty ones at home, even with my fancy Calphalon omelette pan. And my husband's efforts with the iron skillet turn out tasty, but require a stick of butter per serving to keep it from sticking.
The best solution, I think, is to eat them out - without a clue of caloric content. And the best ones we've found are from two downtown Roanoke eateries, both relatively new.
The New Orleans omelette at Lagniappe is not for the unadventurous, judging from the gaping mouths of people I've described it to. But trust me, you can't go wrong with chef Derek Brown's omelette, filled with bacon-wrapped oysters and covered with Creole sauce - just the right amount of spice to get you going in the morning.
This meal was so perfect the first time I had it, I screamed.
I've had a lot of good breakfast food around the corner at Angler's Cafe, but nothing better than the Omelette Benedict, a ham-stuffed sensation, topped with hollandaise sauce and croutons. (Did someone mention butter?)
Bonus points for kid-friendliness go to this fish-fetished spot, one of the few places that have a high chair with an attached tray - not one of those trayless versions where the table meets your toddler at nose-level (and puts his grubby paws too close to your own food). Angler's also lets kids order banana pancakes by the singles.
THE SEEN-IT-ALL CATEGORY goes to The Roanoker restaurant, for most-efficient waitressing. Here, we took our 81-year-old neighbor Edna, who knows all the waitresses by name.
"What am I ordering today, Fran?" she asks.
"The same old-same old: link sausage, a scrambled egg and fried apples."
There's not much these waitresses can't handle, including a crowded dining room with a kid at every booth. They even hunt you down in the parking lot when you forget your baby spoon at the table.
The BEST SCONES I've ever had anywhere come from the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op. The Co-op buys them from Gillie's, a great breakfast spot on College Avenue in Blacksburg. It's known for its fine coffees and baked goods, and breakfast hybrids such as Red Earth, an egg-and-potato combo covered with salsa and cheese.
I have made serious at-home attempts at scones, with a 95-percent failure rate. Either they're too spongey like cake, or they're too flat like bricks.
We tried bribing Gillie's owner, Jan Gillie, for the recipe, but he would confirm only that "lots of butter is the key." While the co-op sells cherry and blueberry scones, Gillie's restaurant offers a wider variety, including tomato-basil.
BEST BISCUIT - My chef friend Michelle is the rare food snob who actually appreciates a little grease - when served in a classic diner atmosphere.
She turned me on recently to the Williamson Road Pancake House, a staple among people who work nearby. (Owner Lance Copperman faxes out his lunch specials daily to area-business regulars.)
The biscuits are so good at this place, they make the cigarette-smoke clouds almost forgiveable. Buttermilky and baked to fluffy perfection, the biscuits are split and then cooked again - on the grill, with butter.
The restaurant customizes pancakes for kids, almost as well as my son's Grandpa Bill, a pancake artist known widely in suburban Indianapolis for his dinosaur, kitty-cat and Mickey Mouse buckwheats.
Bonus points for non-instant grits with cheese, served in an overflowing monkey dish - that's restaurant jargon for those little side-dish bowls.
"If they had Half-n-Half [instead of Coffee Bright], this place would be perfect," my friend said.
BEST DINER AMBIANCE goes to Miss Kitty's Cafe, a white cinderblock building tucked into Sixth Street in Salem. I'm not sure I'd cart my kid there - too much smoke - but Miss Kitty's is definitely the place to put your finger on the pulse of America (especially if you like to eavesdrop).
Men in workman shirts seated at the counter, a table full of women debating the day's front-page news. This place reminds me of those New Hampshire diners where politicians flock to glad-hand and engage in baby-kissing photo ops.
Miss Kitty - owner Nancy K. Haley - wasn't there the morning we went for breakfast. But her portrait was: posted and framed, and featuring the dolled-up Kitty in "Gunsmoke" garb, showing off her unbeatable gams.
Biscuits and gravy are good at Miss Kitty's, as was our friendly waitress - who offered me an ersatz version of my favorite-ever breakfast, even though it wasn't on the breakfast menu: crabcakes, one egg over easy, and a biscuit. Alas, it wasn't up to the Island Inn restaurant's version I always order on Ocracoke. But Miss Kitty's gave it a try.
Leftovers
Kenny Rogers Roasters gets kid points for free helium balloons and macaroni-and-cheese with pasta shells big enough for a toddler's hand to grasp.
But even better are its sweet corn muffins - leftover, for breakfast. Split down the middle, buttered and toasted, you can't beat them.
The most unique pancake I've ever had was served at the Mabry Mill restaurant, on the Blue Ridge Parkway near the Meadows of Dan. The restaurant doesn't open for the season until April 28, but when it does it's worth a trip up the parkway for their buckwheat 'cakes, with pork barbecue sandwiched in.
Sounds strange, tastes great.
by CNB