For my inaugural Neat Eats breakfast post, I drove Friday morning, July 23, to a restaurant I walked past the previous Saturday night as a Wannigan Days parade participant -- crossed the St. Croix River from St. Croix Falls, WI, to Taylors Falls, MN, on foot, I did.
The aptly named St. Croix Cafe can be found across the town's main drag from a tavern where you literally enter through the corner of its building. (How cool is that? Perhaps a future place, new to me, to check out for this blog.)
Among the cafe menu's breakfast options, a selection of "Platters" caught my eye and I went with ordering the Denver Platter that came with ham, onion & green pepper (as you'd expect) along with two eggs served any style -- basted, for me -- with a pile of fried taters (hash browns or American fries, your choice) and toasted HOUSE-MADE BREAD! White, whole wheat or marble rye? I can get white or wheat anywhere. Bring on the rye!
I turned to a daily Sudoku puzzle in a paper I'd brought with me, and as I started to fill out the five-star grid and sipped from a coffee mug (with a pot left on the table), I scanned the narrow room to count 10 tables for customers and another eight stools set around an L-shaped counter. A true diner! But in how many small-town restaurants would you expect to find any copy of the satirical tabloid The Onion, hmm? I spotted a copy at a nearby table , picked it up (though I'd certainly seen the same edition elsewhere) and found it marked "St. Croix Cafe Copy." The issue wasn't current; its print date was April 22 of this year. Then again, a front-page fake story about Vice President Biden getting a lifetime ban from all Dave & Buster's adult amusement centers has a certain timeless quality, don't you think?
My breakfast was served. There was a lot of food (good thing, for $8.00 -- coffee was just $1.25) and every bit of it seemed to hit the spot; in fact, if one spot got covered by what I ate early on, then what followed must have found a new spot because I never tired of eating it. Packets of Smuckers jam and jelly were available on the table, but it seemed wrong to think of using any on the awesome homemade marble rye toast.
The next time I need to drive Hwy. 8 to somewhere in Wisconsin, I may have to time my drive around another stop at the St. Croix Cafe.
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