The American breakfast, bacon and eggs, is alive and well at Portland diners and hash houses. But the tab has gone sky high. While we’re all having sticker shock as consumers, perhaps the most egregious price hikes beyond the gas pump are for something we’ve long taken for granted.
The basic diner-menu breakfast used to include two eggs, bacon, ham or sausage, home fries and toast. I remember it being $6.99 not too long ago. But after a doing a round up of breakfast haunts, which I started in January, I’ve found it’s a solid $10 to $12 and higher for basic breakfast fare– the pay more and get less syndrome. It’s like the pound of coffee that shrank to 12 ounces some years ago; or boxed cake mixes now at 15. 25 ounces that used to weigh in at 18.5 ounces. Even the shampoo that I’ve used for year came out with packaging that proclaimed a “new look, but same old formula” The new look was a shrunken bottle weighing 10 ounces instead of 12. So far a pound of butter is still a pound. Woe be the day when those 4 ounce sticks become 3; there’d be mayhem in kitchens everywhere.
Two eggs, sausage patty, home fries and raisin toast at Moody’s
The reliable greasy spoons that we love are charging ahead with full seats after the pandemic closed off most dining counters. Here’s what you get nowadays at breakfast places in and around Greater Portland’s diners and dives.
Hot Suppa. Only a few stools at the counter are available in this shoebox of a space, so one doesn’t have much choice but to sit close to your neighbor. There is still table seating. Their classic B&E is called the Hollis and costs $12 or $16 with bacon or sausage. But the eggs are good, though no crispy edges and the thick bacon is a bit chewy. The hash browns are tasty, reasonably crisp, but I’ve had better. And what’s with the one slice of toast instead of the usual two? All in all not a bad breakfast. B+
B&E plate–the Hollis–at Hot Suppa with one slice of toast and classic hash browns and smoky bacon
Hot Suppa’s evocative mural at the entry vestibule
Becky’s. Classic bacon and eggs with crispy edged whites and runny yolks, even over easy are $6.50. But home fries are not included in the price anymore. That’s $4.50 extra with onions and $5.50 with green pepper. You need the home fries to sop up the yolks like sauce coating a spoon. But they have good home fries that have just enough grease–home fries’ umami taste–from cooking on a well used flat top. With the basic plus potatoes it’s $11 for classic B&E. Coffee is extra and still $2.50 per cup with endless refills. Becky’s has the best coffee, using Coffee By Design special blend. Still it’s ranks a solid A- for B&E. But veer off the usual and add a plate of blueberry pancakes. Theirs are very good and as huge as dinner plates.
Becky’s classic bacon and eggs with perfect runny eggs ordered over-easy; great home-fries, nice and greasy and none under cooked
Becky’s beautifully prepared blueberry pancakes; hard to see the wile blueberries but they’re there.
Other Side Deli. This upscale breakfast and lunch emporium offers a classic B&E breakfast for $12. I was disappointed. They serve hash browns, rolled up into a ball and deep fried. But there’s only 1 slice of toast, cut in half. That’s chintzy. The bacon is thick, but it’s been lying around for a bit, and by the time it’s reheated and onto the plate it’s tough, needing a knife and fork to cut it. I always pick it up to eat out of hand; lots of chewing and biting required. The eggs are not local or organic (none are anywhere, actually) and the set that I had, which were ordered over easy, were over-hard. Rating is a solid C++
Breakfast at the Otherside Diner
The Miss Portland Diner offers classic bacon and eggs. When visited way back in January I went whole hog (no pun intended) and ordered over-easy eggs, bacon, home-fries and corned beef hash. My bread choice was a southern biscuit instead of toast, muffin or bagel. The eggs were cooked just right, the bacon was smoky and crisp, but many of the potato chunks in the pile of home fries were not cooked enough –an absolute no-no in home-fry territory–and the corned-beef hash was not memorable, needing to be crisped up more on the flat top. The biscuit, which used to be a classic southern style buttermilk biscuit made from an authentic southern biscuit mix, was dry and crumbly. The repast with more fixings than elsewhere was over $25 before tax, tip and coffee. Granted, it was a lot of food, and most of it was pretty good. I’m giving it a solid score of B+
The works at Miss Portland Diner: eggs, bacon, home fries, corned beef hash and biscuit
I gave The Q Street Diner in South Portland a try because I was in the area one morning. It’s not my favorite breakfast hangout. The counters are low and the chairs don’t sit too well at them, your chin being too close to the top. The place is beyond drab and it misses being a dive and a greasy spoon all at once. With its two dining rooms, one with just booths lined up against one another like bowling balls, and the low-slung counters section built for a shorter age, the overall impression for me was that I wanted to leave. Still it was the cheapest of any of the places I visited. The basic breakfast is $6.99 with toast, 2 eggs and home fries or hash brown; add bacon, ham or sausage and the price jumps to $9.50. The potatoes were pretty good with just enough grease–only a few were undercooked–and the eggs ordered over easy were just shy of being overcooked but still runny enough.
The basics at Q Street Diner
The dining room and counter at Q Street
Moody’s is still my all-time favorite diner in Maine. I go there as often as I can. Breakfasts are classic, whether plain old bacon, ham or sausage and eggs or blueberry pancakes.
The eggs–never overcooked–are great no matter how you have them, even scrambled or poached. The home fries are rarely undercooked and have plenty of flavor from a well greased flat top. The bacon is unremarkable but smoky and crisp, and the bread is fine, my current favorite is cinnamon raisin toast at all of my haunts. Overall score is a solid A.
Two eggs gently over easy, sausage patty, home fries and raisin toast at Moody’s
When I go up to the Mid Coast round-trip in one day I stop there for breakfast and then go again for lunch on my return trip. I’m apt to have whatever is the day’s special or their turkey croquettes or ham salad sandwich. Sides like Cole slaw are creamy and tangy, and the potato salad is chock full of chopped eggs wrapped up in plenty of mayo.
That counter at Moody’s hasn’t change appreciably in 100 years
As an aside, beyond the breakfast hour don’t underestimate Becky’s (as well as Moody’s) fried clams. At a recent lunch I had a whopping well buttered roll filled with a mound of fried clams, which were fat, juicy and briny in a crisp coating that didn’t suffer a bit.
Becky’s fried clams are some of the best in Portland
Places I haven’t visited recently but have enjoyed in the past include the Porthole and Marcy’s Diner, which I haven’t been to since the diner changed hands after the irascible Dara Neugebauer yelled at a customer (see Marcy’s Darla Screams). This was the ultimate hash house with the best namesake hash and hash browns and enough grit and gristle to make it just deliciously charming. I will check it out soon to see how the new ownership re-interprets Darla’s fabled sass and vigor at the flat top.
