Breakfast hell
The worst thing about this trip is that I'm in breakfast hell. In Bastow, Calif., our first night's stop, we stayed in a Holiday Inn Express, a hotel chain that offers free breakfast. The breakfast was the reason I joined its Priority Club and the reason we've stayed at one ever since, ever less hopeful. ...
The Barstow breakfast offered three kinds of fresh fruit, teeny Yoplait yogurts, skim milk as well as 2 percent, English muffins and bagels, hot cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, link sausages, biscuits and gravy, six varieties of Bigelow tea. I assumed that was the standard.
Since then, breakfast has devolved, to the point where, early one morning at an understaffed HIE near Oklahoma City, I saw the teen-aged night manager putting out the breakfast and realized he probably wasn't making those little omelets individually in the "pantry," or frying up the sausage patties.
The fresh fruit has become little containers of canned fruit cocktail or overripe bananas, the yogurts off-brand, the butter "buttery spread" and at one point ALL the tea bags were decaffeinated. Yes, we could get in the car and eat along the road, but somehow we never do.
There is no other meal that means as much to me. In fact, I'm so ready to be home for breakfast I may have to do a Top Ten this Tuesday on breakfast (not brunch) places, unless you have a better idea.
Comments
Just think you were only a columnist before, but because you stayed at HIE now you're a food critic.
Posted by: Bender | April 5, 2008 11:20 AM
That sounds like a great idea!
For a chain, and that aren't any in Baltimore than the one in Pikesville, First Watch is pretty good.
Posted by: Susan | April 5, 2008 1:42 PM
I first thought it might depend on the local competition and what they serve, but Barstow? I can't tell you what my son said about Barstow when he was in the Army a few (well, 35) miles away at Fort Irwin. Not the sort of thing for this Sandbox.
Posted by: Mr. Old Fart | April 5, 2008 3:13 PM
I often find breakfast is a problem when traveling nowadays. The "free" breakfasts in moderately-priced hotels is more often than not pretty bad.
And trying to find a breakfast place on the road is terrible since the advent of Interstate highways. From the interstate, all you can find are chains. If you get off the interstate to take the roads through the towns, it's hard to find the breakfast spots if you don't already know where they are. They're probably just a block or so off of the main road, but how is a stranger to know?
Posted by: Hal Laurent, VoR | April 5, 2008 7:28 PM
Hampton Inn usually has a good breakfast.. I tend to avoid them after they billed me twice for one night's stay...
Posted by: Francesca | April 6, 2008 12:10 AM
Hampton Inn usually has a good breakfast..
For small values of "good". :-)
Posted by: Hal Laurent, VoR | April 6, 2008 10:26 AM
Miss Shirley's is my favorite breakfast place. You can eat for a little or a lot depending on what you order, but everything I've ever had there has been scrumptious.
Posted by: Janet | April 6, 2008 11:16 AM
Alas, there are no Miss Shirley's in Barstow or Oklahoma City, I fear.
Posted by: Dahlink | April 6, 2008 1:21 PM
There's some really good breakfast places in OKC. Jimmy's Egg was great -- when I lived there I used to go every Sunday. It's not convenient people passing through on I-40 though. In fact, I'd have to say that breakfast is one of the few things that Oklahoma does much better than Maryland (chicken fried steak is another).
Posted by: Jon Parker | April 6, 2008 4:39 PM
As a rule, weekend HIE breakfasts (Friday-Sunday) were bountiful, but during the week they were limited to pre-packaged hard-boiled eggs, bagels/muffins/sliced bread, cereals, maybe yogurt, and sometimes fruit. I found that a hard-boiled egg sandwich and yogurt is a pretty good breakfast.
Posted by: Dottie | April 7, 2008 10:03 AM
Embassy Suites are always good to stay at b/c they have a free hot breakfast with cooked to order omelets and a 'managers reception' in the evenings which is bascially free happy hour.
As for my favorite breakfast place in Baltimore, it would definitely be Two Sisters Grill. Excellent home cooked breakfast!
Posted by: smcm02 | April 7, 2008 10:58 AM
Ugh, First Watch is horrible.
Posted by: azgal | April 7, 2008 5:01 PM
We've been to First Watch many times and like the breakfasts. The omelets are not greasy, the potatoes are good, the pancakes are good (and too big), they have turkey sausage and bacon and they are very patient when you are their with oldsters. I don't understand the "horrible" review.
Posted by: Susan BK | April 8, 2008 11:55 AM