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The Purple Place Bar and Grill has been an El Dorado Hills icon since the mid-1950’s, and a favorite hangout of the locals. The restaurant is quite appropriately named, as the exterior of large building is painted a bright purple, which really makes it stand out in the crowd. Yes, the exterior of the building is really painted purple, which makes the building nearly impossible to miss. If it’s dark, just look for the bright neon sign that lights the way.
Photo: Check out the covered dining on the shady veranda, in front of The Purple Place. You can't miss the bright purple-painted building. Friday, August 6, 2010 was Robert’s turn to choose the location of today’s meeting of the Sacramento Breakfast Club, and he chose The Purple Place, in El Dorado Hills, CA, as he told us it is a fun place to hang out, serves a fine breakfast, and it’s located only a couple of miles from his home. He and his lovely wife Glenda are regulars at the restaurant, and he thought it would make a perfect addition to the repertoire of breakfast restaurants where we’ve held club meetings, as it meets the criteria that we require in a restaurant, including: * Full service breakfast menu Of course we're always on the lookout for great food, large portions, and a price that won't hurt our wallets. We're serious about breakfast, so when Robert touted the virtues of Purple Place and scheduled it for our early August club meeting, we looked forward to carving another notch on our breakfast bedpost.
Photo: The kitchen extends into the dining room. Note the clean, modern appearance of the interior and the furniture.
Photo: Ann explains Dan's breakfast choice, as Tony ponders the breakfast menu. The
Purple Place bills itself as the
original roadhouse of El Dorado Hills, and it wears many hats, including the
hat of a sports bar, restaurant and the neighborhood hangout, much like the
television show Cheers, sans the
intimate décor. When you enter the
restaurant part of the building, you’ll notice the large breakfast bar, with
the kitchen behind it. It sort of sticks
out into the dining room, and is quite striking. There are quite a few flat screen televisions
mounted on the walls, along with murals and photos. The room is furnished with a mixture of
tables and booths, and the seating is very flexible, as tables can be moved
together to readily accommodate a large group, like ours. The décor is very modern, comfortable and
family-friendly. If the dining room
doesn’t interest you, the restaurant offers covered, patio dining, outside on
the front porch. On a delightful day,
such as today, it would have been pleasant to dine outside, but as a breakfast
reporter, I wanted to dine inside, so I could get an “insider’s view” or the
restaurant for this write-up. The bar, and main sports bar section is located in another part of the building, and due to a very harried schedule, I didn’t get a chance to visit it, or include a description in this report.
Photo: Ann grabs our food from the kitchen shelf, as she prepares to bring it to our table. Note the custom tee shirt she's wearing, as Purple Place sells tee shirts, and other merchandise.
Photo: Ann places Dan's order of biscuits and gravy, country potatoes, sausage, and scrambled eggs on the table, as his wife, Bev, looks on. I had just completed a 16-hour shift at
work, and had to fight eastbound traffic on U.S. 50 from Sacramento to El
Dorado Hills, so by the time I arrived, the meeting had already started, and
today’s members were looking at the menu, and enjoying coffee. Dan introduced me to our friendly server,
Ann, who had already been briefed on the mission of our club, so it was only a
matter of sitting down next to my beautiful wife, Sharlene, and greeting the
club members. Today, we welcomed two
visitors to our club, Robert’s wife, Glenda, and Tony, another retired AT&T
employee. (If you haven’t read our club
profile, click on this link, but just for the record, we’re mostly either
active or retired AT&T employees.) The Purple Place has a very extensive breakfast menu, with something for every taste. Of special note, the breakfast menu includes a wine and beer list, which got a laugh out of the group. I truly was tempted to order a beer – what could taste better at 0830 on a Friday morning, after a 16-hour shift? – But I had to drive home after the meal, so enjoying a beer wasn’t an option. Back to the breakfast menu… I wasn’t able to note what everybody ordered, except for David, who ordered a breakfast scramble, e.g., the “Kitchen Mess,” Sharlene ordered eggs Benedict with country fried potatoes, and I ordered a breakfast of eggs, a Louisiana hot link, country style potatoes, sourdough toast, and as a tribute to ex-club members Brad Holther and Mark McIntire, a bowl of country gravy on the side.
Photo: Robert and Glenda Kipperman. Robert requested that I take their photo, so I figured that I might as well publish it in this article.
Photo: My delicious breakfast of Louisiana hot sausage, country fried potatoes, eggs over easy, sourdough toast, coffee, and a bowl of sausage gravy on the side. This breakfast was delicious! Friday morning must be a popular time
for El Dorado Hills locals to enjoy breakfast, as the restaurant was quite
full, but it didn’t seem crowded or packed.
While waiting for our orders to arrive, we caught up on old times; after
all, it had been exactly seven days since we’d held our last club meeting, and
a lot can happen to breakfast fans in seven days. Thanks to the attentive service of Ann, our
coffee mugs never went below the half-full mark, which is definitely a
benchmark of good service in a breakfast restaurant. The only nit that I can pick is that it was a
tad loud inside, which made conversation a bit difficult at times, but after
all, it’s a sports bar, and any sports bar worthy of the title should be a bit
on the loud side. Our breakfasts arrived in a timely manner, hot and fresh from the kitchen, by our friendly and efficient server, Ann. Breakfast is good at The Purple Place! My eggs over easy were cooked perfectly – which is always an effective yardstick to just the skill of the breakfast chef – and the country potatoes were perfectly browned on the outside, and chewy on the inside, and were not pre-salted, which is a nice touch, as I prefer to add salt to my preference. The sausage and toast were great, and the gravy was creamy and smooth, with lots of visible pieces of sausage. I spooned the gravy on my potatoes and proceeded to enjoy breakfast, in my favorite style, with lots of gravy. I noticed my wife’s eggs Benedict were beautiful, and I checked out David’s “Kitchen Mess” of potatoes, cheese, biscuits, covered with country gravy. Mmmmmm good! David seemed to be in breakfast heaven… By the way, the coffee was delicious and plentiful.
Photo: David works on his "Kitchen Mess." I think the next time we visit The Purple Place I'll order a mess, as it looked good, and he raved about it, in the customary post-meeting de-briefing in the parking lot.
Photo: Today's club members, from left to right: David DeMario, Bev MacLeod, Dan MacLeod, Tony Godsey, Robert Kipperman, Glenda Kipperman, Sharlene Rench, and Eric Rench, your photographer, author and webmaster. Outside in the parking lot, during the
post-meeting de-briefing, all club members agreed that The Purple Place serves a delicious breakfast, in a fun, friendly
atmosphere. The restaurant give you a
good value for your dollar, as the servings are ample, the wait staff is
friendly and efficient, and the place is just plain fun, and it’s a restaurant
that the Sacramento Breakfast Club
endorses. No wonder they’ve been serving
great breakfasts since 1955. Highly
recommended by the Sacramento Breakfast Club. The
Purple Place Bar and Grill Copyright(c) 2010 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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