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In Roseville, Ca, (which is a Placer County town located about 20 miles northeast of Sacramento) South Harding Boulevard is an important street, as it sort of parallels busy Interstate 80, but more important things other than geographic items that South Harding Boulevard has to offer are two major commodities: Shopping and dining. If fast food is your choice, you can choose from several of the major fast food chains, and there are quite a few chain sit-down restaurants ... need I say Denny's? ... and quite a few restaurants that cater to the after work crowd, party animals, and the dim-lit, loud-talking dinner crowd. But how many restaurants in the restaurant corridor actually cater to the breakfast crowd, with the lunch crowd thrown in for good measure? Only one restaurant fits that description: Waffle Square Country Kitchen, open from 0600 to 1500... Wow! A restaurant that is breakfast-serious on the Harding Boulevard corridor... on July 23, 2010, when it was Bev's turn to pick 'n choose the location of today's meeting, Waffle Square was her choice. And, may I add, it was an outstanding choice! Read on...
Photo: We were fortunate today, as the local hot rod club was enjoying breakfast at Waffle Square, so we had lots of machine eye candy to enjoy before enjoying a delicious breakfast. Allow me regress... We've lived in Roseville for 12 years, and I've driven by Waffle Square Country Kitchen countless times, as it's located on a street that emphasises shopping, auto repairs and dining, albeit, much of the dining falls into the fast food genre. Sure, I'd noticed the banner in front of Waffle Square that advertises the $3.95 weekday breakfast combination plates, which should have pulled me in, like iron to a magnet, but somehow I had resisted the draw. Maybe I was too busy to stop for breakfast on all of the countless trips to the automotive repair shop, the smog place, or the DMV, but I HAD noticed the restaurant, and had put it on my things-to-accomplish list, which, unfortunately due to my hyper-schedule, can get lost in the daily shuffle. The point that I'm trying to make is that you DO NOT WANT to pass by Waffle Square Country Kitchen. It's a Roseville breakfast treasure... Maybe the restaurant doesn't totally meet our "no chain restaurant" requirements, as they're under the same ownership of Waffle Square on Fulton Blvd., which we've visited previously. OK, the menu is the same: Delicious, reasonably priced, and filling, and the service is awesome, but what sets the two locations apart is Chielo, who just happens to be the friendliest server that we've met since we've been holding meetings of the Sacramento Breakfast Club.
Photo: This shot shows the main dining room as you enter the restaurant, pass the cashier's station, and the gift shop. The decor is very modern, and very in-keeping with the casual, Roseville atmosphere,
Photo: Chielo takes Sharlene's order of a ground beef omelete, which seems to keep well in the refrigerator. She looked at the menu and knew that she couldn't eat all of her breakfast; she took most of it home in a box to enjoy later. I worked the night shift, so I didn't get off work until 0800, then I had to go home, throw a few things, including the computer that is posting this article on the web, into my den, pick up my beautiful wife, and haul on over to Waffle Square, where Dan, Bev and David were waiting for us. Dan and Bev have long since retired from gainful employment with AT&T, or any other venue, and David was on the downside of a couple of weeks of well-deserved vacation, so I was the late-kid-on-the-block, as Sharlene and I arrived at exactly 0840, which put us last in line, but not neglected nor forgotten. As we joined the group, our server, Chielo, which is pronounced - chee EL ow - greeted Sharlene and I with an award-winning smile and asked what we wanted to drink. Me: Coffee and a Martini, shaken, not stirred. Sharlene: Large orange juice and coffee. With a smile, Chielo served Sharlene and I our coffee, and Sharlene got her juice. I had to pass on the martini, as Waffle Square doesn't serve booze, as they're open for breakfast and lunch only. Only night shift types, or hard-cord boozers would want a martini at 0845 on a beautiful summer morning in Roseville, but alas... you can categorize me into the aforementioned categories. If you're a breakfast person, you'll love the menu at Waffle Square, as it has it all... whatever you want for breakfast, it's on the menu, and if it's not on the menu, all you have do is to ask, and VOILĄ! ... it's there. If you don't like the menu, there's always the white board that greets you as you enter the dining room, which advertises the daily specials. I did a double-take on the white board, as it advertised a shrimp omelet, complete with potatoes and toast for $6.95 - it sounded tempting, but I decided to stick to the menu. You could almost get lost in the menu, as it offers so many choices for breakfast... Waffle Square Country Kitchen has their heart and soul in breakfast, so if you love breakfast, you need to visit Waffle Square.
Photo: Gotcha!!! I caught Chielo as she was ready to deliver our breakfasts, hot from the kitchen.
Photo: Photographic Chielo delivers breakfasts to our table. Sure, she's easy on the eyes, and she is super-friendly, but check out the plates that she is carrying that proves that she is a great food server. As I mentioned before, Sharlene and I were the latecomers in today's club members, and Chielo promptly fixed us up with delicious coffee - I think it's Farmer's Brothers Coffee - but whatever the brand, the coffee is delicious. The coffee keeps on coming, as our mugs never reached the halfway point before friendly Chielo came around, not only to replenish our coffee mugs, but to spread her friendly charm. In keeping with my somewhat blemished character, I pulled out my camera and took a "Candid Camera" photo of her gearing up to deliver breakfast to another group of customers. OK, my weird behavior demanded an explanation, so I explained to her the mission of the Sacramento Breakfast Club, e.g., who we are, what we do, and the fact the we publish our adventures on the Internet. She seemed absolutely memorized by what I was about to do, and enthusiastically encouraged me to take photos of her. My kind of girl!!! Since Waffle Square is open for breakfast and lunch only, their breakfast menu is extensive, and it occupies about two-thirds of the menu. To us, that translates into a restaurant that is dead-serious about breakfast, and Waffle Square is right-on in that respect. I was torn between ordering the Mexican Omelette and the Farmer's Skillet, but both David and I defaulted to the skillet because of the gravy, but Dan fell to the lure of the Mexican Omelette, which seemed to be an excellent choice. Sharlene ordered a ground beef skillet, a.k.a., a "Joe's Special," which she chose because she knew she couldn't eat off of her meal, and wanted to bring some home in a box to enjoy later. Waffle Square specializes in waffles, and the only one who ordered a waffle was Bev, as she's a lover of pancakes and waffles. While we were waiting for our breakfast, the coffee kept on comin' with a smile and lots of friendly conversation from Chielo. If you're going to rate your server, on a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give Chielo a perfect 10! Not only is she very easy on the eyes, but she's super-friendly, and excellent communicator, and she knows how to deliver the goods. Not the mention that she kept our mugs full of delicious coffee, and actually encouraged me to take lots of photos! Can life get any better than that? Yes, it can, as she came up to us and told us that she was going on break and that Jasmine would be refilling our coffee mugs and taking care of any of our breakfast needs. And Jasmine delivered to coffee and took care of us... Nice!
Photo: My breakfast of a Farmer's Skillet, with a side of biscuits and gravy, along with my bottomless coffee mug.
Photo: Jasmine "pinch hitted" for Chielo, while Ms. "C" was on break, and kept our mugs full of coffee. So I just had to ask her to pose for my digital camera... I love taking photos of beautiful women! So you ask, what is a Farmer's Skillet? It's a dish of homestyle potatoes, with bell pepper and diced onions, laced with bacon, sausage, cheese, with a couple of fried eggs on top, and then the whole thing is covered in sausage gravy. Oh goodness... it's a breakfast to die for! On the side, you get your choice of several varieties of toast, OR biscuits and gravy. No-brainier for me - biscuits and gravy - my de-facto favorite side dish. Worth noting is that many other restaurants charge extra for the gravy, or force you to eliminate potatoes if you elect for biscuits and gravy, Waffle Square Country Kitchen treats it the same way as a slab of toast. It all boils down to if you're a lover of biscuits and gravy, you can't go wrong at Waffle Square. The aforementioned phrase, "you cant go wrong at Waffle Square" rings true in every aspect: Food, price, service, quality, quantity, and overall merit. The restaurant, and invite her to visit you and enjoy breakfast at Waffle Square. All of fell in love with Chielo, and I think she liked us too. She loved the fact that I took photos and that I planed to publish our club meeting on our web site, but taking those wonderful attributes aside, she kept our coffee mugs full, delivered our breakfasts, and gave us lots of attention, yet she was never intrusive. AND THE FOOD... Oh yes, the food... Delicious. Plentiful. Perfect. Attractive. Reasonable. Did I say delicious? The food is good, with a capital "G!"
Photo: Today's members of the Sacramento Breakfast Club, from left to right: Eric Rench, you reporter, photographer and web master, Dan MacLeod, David DeMario, Bev MacLeod, and Sharlene Rench. We loved everything about Waffle Square Country Kitchen, and we know that you'll love everything about the restaurant too. Waffle Square has catapulted itself into our top-ten favorites, so we'll be back, without a doubt. It's highly rated by the members of the Sacramento Breakfast Club. Waffle
Square Country Kitchen 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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