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Sacramento is a city with a population of nearly 500,000, and it's the capitol city of the great state of California, and it's a wonderful place to live and work in, as it offers reasonable housing prices, for California that is, and the area features a diverse amount of recreational opportunities, from the opera to the great outdoors, and everything else that you could imagine. If you're a connoisseur of breakfasts, it offers enough fine breakfast restaurants to keep a breakfast-freak in business for many months, without going to the same restaurant twice. Yet some restaurants are worth visiting again and again, and Eggie's Coffee Shop, located on busy Fulton Ave., definitely fits into the repeat-visit category of restaurant, worth of the efforts of our breakfast club.
Photo: If you weren't looking for the restaurant, you'd almost miss it, as Eggie's doesn't feature a free-standing sign, but the parking lot is almost full on a nondescript Friday morning in March. That's my 1996 Camry in the lower left side of the photo, which adds to the composition of the photo. Friday, March 14, 2008, The Sacramento Breakfast Club decided to hold a repeat-performance meeting at Eggies, and since we hadn't visited the restaurant since December of 2006, we felt it was about time to enjoy one of their delicious breakfasts. There is nothing fancy or pretentious about Eggie's, as the building, the food and the decor of the restaurant are pure blue-collar, yet it's a clean, comfortable and friendly place to enjoy a delicious meal, which features large portions, attractive presentations, and served by a friendly staff. Eggie's is a one-of-kind, locally owned and operated restaurant, which sadly enough, seems to be on the endangered species list of the Sacramento landscape. Eggie's Coffee Shop is located miles from the interstate, so you won't find the RV-crowd, or 18-wheelers, or for that matter, any tourists, but you will be happy to find that it's a favorite of Sacramento locals, and chances are when you visit the restaurant, you'll run into one of your friends or neighbors.
Photo: The breakfast counter, and the busy staff at work at Eggie's. The kitchen is to the left of the photo, behind the friendly waiter who is looking nonplussed toward my digital camera. As usual, I was asked, "Why are you taking photos?" The staff was not hostile, just merely interested. Doesn't everybody do this sort of thing? Core breakfast club member David was already waiting for us at the restaurant, as he was lucky to have the day off, so was in place before the rest of us got off work, and had already set up shop at a table for six, along with breakfast club guest Tom Shatto II, a co-worker from another work location, who at the time of today's visit to Eggie's, was in town helping in the orchestrating of a special project at work. You see, members of the Breakfast Club are all friends and co-workers; all of us work the night shift together, so when we get off work at 0800, what is more natural than for a group of friends to get together and get together to swap lies and war stories over a delicious breakfast?
Photo: These folks really know how to deliver a perfect meal in a timely manner. I admire the wait staff for their ability to present your order directly to you, (how can they remember...?,) to juggle the full plates of hot food on their arms, and to keep a friendly demeanor, and lots of conversation. Not to mention a full coffee cup... If you like coffee, Eggie's Coffee Shop, (does the "coffee" in their name mean anything to you?) is the place to be, as they will not allow your coffee cup to get below half full, or is it half empty? They're serious about coffee, and the coffee is served at the optimum temperature, and has just the right octane mix. We appreciate the fact that each table has one of those little stainless steel pitchers of cream, so you can put in just right amount, when the friendly server comes around to top off your cup. Eggie's menu features a diverse array of breakfast favorites, yet we barely glanced at the menu, as we had fond memories from our previous visit: Ham and eggs, with features a HUGE slab of ham. Weldon and Tom had never had the opportunity to visit Eggie's before, but they acted on faith, and absorbed our propaganda recommendations, and the bottom line is that we all ordered the same entrée: Ham, eggs over easy, and homestyle potatoes. Our side dish orders varied, as your author was the only one who ordered biscuits and gravy, while the others opted for various types of toast. All of us ordered coffee except for Weldon, as he's one of tea-sort-of-guys, whatever that means, yet Dan and Weldon are true brothers, as they both ordered a side drink of V-8.
Photo: March 14, 2008 Sacramento Breakfast Club members, left to right, Tom, Weldon, Dan, David, and your author, Eric. Photo taken by our friendly and capable waiter; see previous photo. Our orders arrived in only about 15 minutes or so, delivered by two friendly servers, with friendly conversation, and smile on their faces. It never ceases to amaze me how these serves can carry four plates of food, not only holding a large plate in their hands, but balancing plates on their arms; it's sort of multi-tasking, as they can carry the food, carry on friendly conversation, and deliver the goods, on-time, un-affected in-transit, hot, yet fresh from the griddle. We can't say enough about the friendly wait staff at Eggies, as they're efficient, non-intrusive, friendly, and they do an outstanding job, and make you feel at home. When it comes to a delicious breakfast, the word outstanding comes to mind when you attempt to describe a breakfast at Eggies. All five of us ordered the same wonderful entrée of ham, fried eggs over easy, and homestyle potatoes. I ordered biscuits and gravy as a side dish, and the rest of the guys ordered toast, in various flavors. All of agreed that we really didn't need our knives, as our huge slices of ham were juicy and tender, and we didn't need our knives to cut the ham into bite-sized pieces. Another thing we noticed was the ham wasn't salty, as is the case in ham served in many national restaurant chains, which is an important factor in the nutritional requirements for the over-40 crowd, which unfortunately, includes all members of The Sacramento Breakfast Club. The ham is juicy and delicious, the homestyle potatoes are golden brown on the outside, yet tender on the inside, and the eggs are fried perfectly, and the yokes aren't runny, or "rubbery," and they're cooked, well ... perfect.
Photo: Darn! In the midst of friendly conversation, I didn't take a photo of my breakfast, but I did snap a photo of Dan's, which was identical to mine. Note the huge piece of ham, that is perfectly done to perfection, AND the knife that is placed at a jaunty angle. Not shown is the plate with the biscuit and the cup of gravy on the side. The whole breakfast package is WONDERFUL! The Sacramento Breakfast Club was impressed with Eggie's friendly wait staff, the delicious food, ample portions, comfortable dining, fast service, attractive presentation, and very reasonable prices. When you enjoy a delicious breakfast at Eggies, you'll skip lunch, and eat a very light dinner, as their ample portions and reasonable prices will place a smile on your face for the rest of day. We can't think of a better way to start, or in our case, end your day, than enjoying a breakfast at Eggies Coffee Shop. Article courtesy of eRench Productions, Inc., custom photography for any occasion...
Copyright(c) 2008 eRench Productions, Inc. All rights reserved. This site has been on the web since December 22, 2002. Web page design has been created by eRench Productions, Inc., custom photography for any occasion...
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