Jim's Restaurant Too! (aka Penguin Diner)

Okay, let's start with what to call this place. I was sure it was the Penguin Diner as that is what the sign says when you're approaching it from the west, but the awning out front says "Elena's Jim's Restaurant Too!" horizontally and in the middle has "Jim's E Restaurant Too!" represented. Take a look here. Internet says Penguin is long gone and reopened as Jim's Too! Now, there's a Jim's closer to my house so is Jim's Too! a klever sequel to Jim's or is there some kind of comedic tension between Elena and Jim (of Jim's Too!, not of just Jim's, although maybe that Jim and Jim too are one and the same). I'm just going to call it Jim's Too! for now.

It's around the corner from work so an easy stop on the way in. White walls, minimal decor, cops at the counter, American flag and Bills bandanas on the cooks. At 9 am Monday morning there was still a little bustle left from breakfast and I sat at the counter, grabbed a menu and looked for my breakfast sandwich options as an eager young man came to the other side of the counter to help me out.

"Hey, What can I get ya?!"
"Just looking at the breakfast sandwich options."
"Oh, sure, the WHAMS. They're down here...wait, where are the WHAMS?" He asked a coworker where the WHAMS were on the menu and then pointed me to them. Sure enough they were under the heading of WHAMS but I did not have the time to process what that meant (Denny's-esque tribute to local broadcasting maybe?) In any event, pretty standard choices so I asked what kind of bread I could get the sandwich on. Standing out from the usual diner suspects was Italian so I opted to have my sandwich on that, with bacon. I also noticed home-fries were only 85¢ so it seemed silly not to get them as well. A few minutes later I paid my four buck and headed to work.

So, I managed to sidestep the Rochester "hard" roll, but I remain foiled by the styrofoam take out container. It's hard to give this sandwich a fair shake because I'm pretty sure that putting any kind of bread in styrofoam with steamy hot potatoes next to it is just going to make it a soft mess. This Italian bread was no exception. Not crusty, smushed and chewy as I made my way to the bacon, egg, and cheese. Flavors were fine, salt/grease ratio was good, but the bread just kinda deflates the whole endeavor. Home fries were average and improved with the provided salt, pepper, and ketchup, but for 85¢ I certainly can't complain.


Jim's Restuarant Too!
785 Main Street East, Rochester, 14605
Sandwich cost: $2.85
Rating: It was a breakfast sandwich

Village Bakery

With my continual disappointment at the Rochester hard roll Karen has been trying to get me to Pittsford to try the Village Bakery. Thing is, heading to Pittsford first thing in the morning or midday on the weekend just isn't that appealing to me, but in her ongoing efforts to be incredibly kind to me she delivered breakfast to my work this past Wednesday.

I'll cut to the chase, she brought a gun to a knife fight.

She ordered me her favorite: the Alex (sandwiches have names at the Village bakery, I do not know the story behind this and I'm not so sure I care) which is comprised of scrambled (sorry, whisked) eggs, chèvre, arugula, and pesto on hearty, grilled multi-grain bread. Even with the drive from Pittsford to downtown and then the delay in getting Karen and me in the same place at the same time, the sandwich was delicious. Heaping eggs, crusty bread, the spikiness of the arugula with the creaminess of the goat cheese and pesto...all lovely. I can only imagine  that it would improve eating it moments after it was made. As it was, not too shabby.

Not pictured: gobs of pesto and cheese falling out onto the wrapper to be scooped up later.

Village Bakery
Sandwich cost: $6.95
Rating: That's a first-class breakfast sandwich

Balsam Bagels, again

The first day of the semester requires sustenance and I didn't want to pussyfoot around with cereal or toast. As I was eyeing my options Karen said to meet her at Balsam so she could take me out for breakfast and being a gentleman, I obliged.

I retooled my sandwich from last time to include real sausage and American cheese (instead of veggie sausage and cheddar) on a toasted everything bagel and was rewarded with a breakfast sandwich that was greater than the sum of its parts. Everything interacting with each other cohesively: just the right amount of salt, grease, and chewiness. It's almost as if putting these four things together changed the molecular composition of the elements involved. It was no longer just egg, bread, cheese, and meat, it became...a breakfast sandwich.

Balsam Bagels
Sandwich cost: $3.79
Rating: That is a damn fine breakfast sandwich

Sam's Diner

Another Wednesday morning on E. Ridge Road. Time to check out Sam's Diner in the kooky Atrium Mall plaza (across the street from Medley Center, formerly The Irondequoit Mall, this seems to be the neighborhood of retail experimentation) but Sam's is a pretty traditional diner. I walked in at 8, all eyes up at me as I walked to the counter. No one behind it but a man in an apron is sitting on the last stool drinking coffee.

"Can I get two fried egg sandwiches to go, over easy?"
"How do you want them?"
"Can I get them fried, kinda runny?"
"You want them scrambled?"
"Ummmm, no, I'll take them fried over easy if I could..."
"Sure thing, hard roll? Meat?"
The question that vexes me every time. Do I spin the hard roll roulette wheel or should I see what my other options are? Still too early for me to make decisions I agreed to the hard roll and one sandwich with bacon and one with no meat. And an order of home fries. To go.

Well, no sense in dragging this out, it's the same damn roll of disappointment that's all over this town. And, true to form, it just smushes down into gooey nothing. I think it's time to stop hoping I'm gonna score some kind of crusty deliciousness at a regular diner. Next time I ask and see what they've got like I did at the Brockport Diner a few days ago:

"The roll for your breakfast sandwich...that a Petrillo's roll?"
"I...have..no idea what that means."
"Does it have a knotted top?"
"It sure does!" Big laughs all around.
(It was late afternoon and I just needed some soup to warm me up so no sandwich to review yet.)

As for the eggs, even with the ordering confusion they were cooked to drippy perfection. American cheese for melted saltiness, and the bacon on mine added the extra salt and greasiness I like in a sandwich. Too bad about the roll. Trying to recall the home fries a week later...not bad, not great, kinda dry, kinda meh.

Sam's Diner
1780 E Ridge Road, Ste 6, Rochester, NY 14622
Sandwich cost: $3.75
Rating: It's a pretty good breakfast sandwich

Morningstar Greek American Restaurant

Breakfast Sandwich Now

Monday. Shit, it's still only Monday. Every time the alarm goes off I think I'm gonna wake up on Friday. Sometimes I'd wake up and there'd be nothing. No eggs in the fridge, left the real hard rolls back downstate. When I was here I wanted to be there and when I was there all I could do was think of a way back to a diner. I've been here a while now, and every day I get hungrier.

It was Monday, Rochester, not Saigon, but I had gone to bed too late and gotten up too early to get the kids to school. I did have eggs (and even hard rolls in the freezer), but I wanted to get to work early and didn't feel like sleepily overcooking breakfast so I veered towards The Morningstar.

A large, open dining room makes for an unremarkable setting but the diner menu makes for a reliable neighborhood breakfast joint. The sparseness of the room is countered by the warmth of...oh, man, I've been going here for years and don't know the name of the woman who runs it. I do know that she calls me dear, brings me food, and is always a pleasure. Today was no different (though she seemed confused as this was probably the earliest I've ever been in there and I've never gotten something to go).

"Yes, dear?"
"Breakfast sandwich and home fries to go, please." She looked at me and tried to remember if this was my usual order and if so did I prefer ham, sausage or bacon. I don't think I've ever ordered a breakfast sandwich here before so I helped her out, "Bacon."

There was only one other person there so she and I chatted a minute about sleepy Monday mornings (though as she was at work at 7 and I had to be to work at 9 I was dragging far behind in chat).

Styrofoam container set to go and I'm gone. At home I slowly revealed the sandwich still open, melted cheese glistening in the morning light, hash browns at the ready. I picked up the top of the roll with its dab of butter and put it on top of the sandwich. Aaaaaaand we've got ourselves another Petrillo's hard roll. A momentary setback as the fried egg, though hard, was good, the white American cheese was gooey, the bacon had crisp and chewy ends, and the home fries, though not crisp in any way, were well seasoned and had plenty of onion.

Morningstar Greek American Restaurant
850 Merchants Road, Rochester, NY 14609
Sandwich cost: In my sleepiness I forgot to look at a menu. Next time.
Rating: It's a pretty classic breakfast sandwich

Balsam Bagels

Although this is the first breakfast sandwich I'm posting in 2014 it's not the first I've had. I made myself a fried egg and muenster cheese on a toasted onion nan the other day which was grand and also reminded me that switching up the bread is very rewarding. To that end comes today's sandwich: How do you avoid the Rochester hard roll? Go to a bagel store.



Sunday morning: Hungry, don't feel like sitting down anywhere pre-shower (especially Pittsford, though the promise of "whisked eggs with avocado pico de gallo" sounds fancy and delicious), so we're just gonna head over to the local bagel store which has some pretty decent bagels.

Karen ordered first: "Egg and cheese on an everything with veggie sausage, please." The bagels were still hot out of the oven but they offered to toast it for her. "Yes, please. With butter!" As they started her sandwich I realized that the eggs were pre-made, perfectly round scrambled patties grabbed from a bin, put in a microwave with the sausage patty on top. After deciding not to risk disappointment with microwaved bacon I went with the same order as Karen. We both opted for cheddar.

Coffee and juice in tow we headed home. A too quick photo session (which yielded the above blurry pics as I was very hungry), and we dove in.

What can I say, it's hard to fuck up an egg sandwich. Bagel was good- warm, soft yet yielding, egg, although made earlier in the day, was fluffy (a little salt and pepper in the preparation would've helped), and the veggie sausage was pretty good, too. Karen appreciated the vegetarian option offered and was very pleased with the sausage but for me the sandwich lacked the greasy saltiness that pork imbues. We both agreed that the cheddar was unidentifiable as cheddar. As chewy as the melted muenster I mentioned earlier and no discernable sharpness.

Balsam Bagels
Sandwich cost: $4.29
Rating: A hearty, no frills breakfast sandwich

Scott's II

I was just coming off of a stomach bug and had been eating nothing but soup and crackers for three days and needed something more substantial in me, especially if this was going to be the start of my holiday shopping. The Public Market seemed like as good a place as any to get a tree and have breakfast.

I have no idea where Scott's I is but I do know that by the Railroad Street entrance to the Market, between Cherry's European and The Empanada Stop, is my favorite food shack: Scott's II. Behind the plywood and plexi winter walls sit the stools, steel counters, and no-frills open kitchen of the stand. We ordered two sandwiches (all you have to say), coffee and juice, and took a seat.

They've changed their rolls since the last time I've been there and was pleasantly surprised to not get a hard roll but instead a dense, chewy semi-rectangular roll for the fried egg and white American cheese to soak into (given this being my first day back on the eating horse I opted out of any meat.) That's a good sandwich, better than I remember, actually: lightly greasy, the egg neither hard nor soft, substantial bread that was grilled but not dripping with butter or margarine (though if it were grilled a bit longer it would be just about perfect).

Scott's II, Rochester Public Market
Sandwich cost: 3.00
Rating: A solid breakfast sandwich