Breakfast Adventures

[CharlotteLuck]

Hola Gulleteers,

My wife and I are opening a breakfast restaurant in Rock Hill, SC in a few weeks. The place has been closed since August and looks like it. We have a lot of clean up to do before we open and wanted to share the hard work in photo. I would love to hear ya'lls suggestions fro decor, food, etc. My background is high end though I have worke breakfast as well. I love eggs and feel like they don't get much attention so.....Ladies and Gentlemen The Yolk Cafe "A Love Affair with eggs"!!!!!!

[Chris Amirault]

Do tell! What's the current plan for your menu, hours, staffing, etc?

[SylviaLovegren]

Are you planning on keeping the retro dinner look -- and most of what's there -- or are you gutting?

I always love black and white floors in diners (you have them in the kitchen but not the dining room?) and eggy/breakfasty places look clean and snazzy with black and white, shiny chrome, and a sunny bright yellow with red and white and black accents.

[CharlotteLuck]

We are gonna do it old school. Forty seats breakfast only. My wife serving me cooking and my sis server assisting. I wanna really have fun with my first restaurant and make some money of course. We're gonna clean it out top to bottom do some painting and rearranging.

[janeer]

I'm kinda jealous.

[CharlotteLuck]

We are gonna keep the aesthitic it has. I worked in open kitchens in Scottsdale,AZ dining and I really love the interaction with guests. I also think it is cool for guest to watch me prepare their food. We are going to refloor with light cedar wood floors and wood bar as well as accents and paint the walls carolina blue with some accents. We want to see how busy its gonna be before we do much restructuring. I love the chrome, black, and white diner too. But I think I want it almost to feel like a contemporary country kitchen. If there is such a thing!

[CharlotteLuck]

Do tell! What's the current plan for your menu, hours, staffing, etc?

We are gonna stay open from 5am-1pm. The majority of the breakfast places in the area open at 7 so we should get a nice push from 5 -7. Especially since we are gonna run an early bird special. The Menu is fairly simple with Chalkboard specials whenever we need to use up a product or I feel like having fun. Pricing hasn't been decided as we haven't decided on purveyors. Here is the menu currently:

The YOLK

1. Double Up | 2 eggs any style, bacon or sausage, TN fries

2. Wisconsin | Cheddar or Swiss 3 egg omelet w/ TN fries

a. Add ham, bacon, or sausage

b. Add mushroom, spinach, tomato, onion, pepper

3. Rocky Mountain | 3 egg omelet w onions, peppers, & ham w TN fries

4. Perdu Combo | French toast w bacon or sausage & 2 eggs

5. Jack Combo | 2 pancakes w bacon or sausage & 2 eggs

6. Jack Stack | 3 pancakes w bacon or sausage

7. Biscuit

a. W | egg

b. W | cheese & egg

c. W | meat, cheese, egg

8. Steel Cut Oats | Plain or Washington

9. Country Grits

a. W| Diced Bacon 1

10. TN Fries | Fried Yukon potatoes with PerfectTN Seasoning

11. Bacon | 4 Applewood smoked pieces

12. Sausage| 3 little Piggies

13. Single Egg

14. Fresh Fruit

15. Toast

16. Juice

17. Milk

18. Soda

Early Bird Special(5-6:30)

Double Up and Juice 5

Egg & Cheese Biscuit 1.25

[gfweb]

Closing at 1 might cost some lunch business.

[CharlotteLuck]

Closing at 1 might cost some lunch business.

I thought about that...I think we are gonna start off closing at 1pm but if we get enough request to be open later, we are gonna have to hire more people. Thats a problem I would love to have. LOL Or at least I think I would.

[SylviaLovegren]

The soft blue and soft cedar combo sounds fresh and nice. Maybe some curtains in blue/white stripes or polka dots? Coppery soft oranges are a nice compliment to the blue and works well with the warm wood tones.

The menu sounds great. Are there any specialties that you'll offer that other places don't? And you are offering fresh brewed coffee, aren't you?

[Chris Amirault]

Closing at 1 might cost some lunch business.

I thought about that...I think we are gonna start off closing at 1pm but if we get enough request to be open later, we are gonna have to hire more people. Thats a problem I would love to have. LOL Or at least I think I would.

I agree with gfweb. If you don't want lunch business, then don't have lunch; if you do want lunch business, then I think you have to stay open until 2p. 5a-2p is the standard diner operation around these parts, with the understanding that 1-2p is stragglers and clean-up. You close doors at 1p, you'll be booting your lunch crowd out, and if you're not planning to boot 'em out at 1p, you probably should just stay open and serve the last of your lunch specials to the late folks, yes?

[CharlotteLuck]

The soft blue and soft cedar combo sounds fresh and nice. Maybe some curtains in blue/white stripes or polka dots? Coppery soft oranges are a nice compliment to the blue and works well with the warm wood tones.

The menu sounds great. Are there any specialties that you'll offer that other places don't? And you are offering fresh brewed coffee, aren't you?

Maybe I should get you to come interior design I like you ideas. Of course we are doing fresh brewed coffee. I'm gonna buy a coffee grinder and put french presses on the table for coffee. I have a few specials that I will run I'm gonna make a huevos rancheros with a chorizo black bean chili and cilantro sour cream.

[SylviaLovegren]

Maybe I should get you to come interior design I like you ideas. Of course we are doing fresh brewed coffee. I'm gonna buy a coffee grinder and put french presses on the table for coffee. I have a few specials that I will run I'm gonna make a huevos rancheros with a chorizo black bean chili and cilantro sour cream.

With fresh french press and your heuvos rancheros, I'm ready to come help! It sounds great. Best of luck -- keep us posted on progress. Photos as you go!

[Kim Shook]

The soft blue and soft cedar combo sounds fresh and nice. Maybe some curtains in blue/white stripes or polka dots? Coppery soft oranges are a nice compliment to the blue and works well with the warm wood tones.

The menu sounds great. Are there any specialties that you'll offer that other places don't? And you are offering fresh brewed coffee, aren't you?

Probably shouldn't do orange with the blue - those are UVA colors and might keep the Carolina folks away ! Seriously, though, I really like the idea of Carolina blue and white stripes - very fresh and modern, but still homey. Good luck! Will this be just weekdays, or weekends too?

[Holly Moore]

Given any thought to sausage gravy, country ham with red eye gravy? Also a chicken fried steak with gravy? Pork chop? And some homemade or top quality preserves for the biscuits not being dipped in the red eye gravy. Maybe even some liver mush.

Southern breakfast fanatic, here, if it wasn't obvious.

Wishing you great success.

Edited to add: Also sausage biscuits and country ham biscuits, oh yeah.

Edited February 28, 2012 by Holly Moore (log)

[CharlotteLuck]

The soft blue and soft cedar combo sounds fresh and nice. Maybe some curtains in blue/white stripes or polka dots? Coppery soft oranges are a nice compliment to the blue and works well with the warm wood tones.

The menu sounds great. Are there any specialties that you'll offer that other places don't? And you are offering fresh brewed coffee, aren't you?

Probably shouldn't do orange with the blue - those are UVA colors and might keep the Carolina folks away ! Seriously, though, I really like the idea of Carolina blue and white stripes - very fresh and modern, but still homey. Good luck! Will this be just weekdays, or weekends too?

we are gonna do 5am-2pm(per you guys suggestions;great ones by the by) Monday-Saturday

[CharlotteLuck]

Given any thought to sausage gravy, country ham with red eye gravy? Also a chicken fried steak with gravy? Pork chop? And some homemade or top quality preserves for the biscuits not being dipped in the red eye gravy. Maybe even some liver mush.

Southern breakfast fanatic, here, if it wasn't obvious.

Wishing you great success.

Edited to add: Also sausage biscuits and country ham biscuits, oh yeah.

Yeah I will definitely do those things. But I will do those as specials. I have to find some great local livermush. ANd when the growing season comes back I'm gonna make some seasonal perserves. Home made biscuits, country ham and red eye gravy from the left over coffee at the end of the week sounds great.

[CharlotteLuck]

Maybe I should get you to come interior design I like you ideas. Of course we are doing fresh brewed coffee. I'm gonna buy a coffee grinder and put french presses on the table for coffee. I have a few specials that I will run I'm gonna make a huevos rancheros with a chorizo black bean chili and cilantro sour cream.

With fresh french press and your heuvos rancheros, I'm ready to come help! It sounds great. Best of luck -- keep us posted on progress. Photos as you go!

Sure we except stages of all professional experience!! LOL

[IndyRob]

I don't know nothin' about nothin', but I think you need, if you haven't already done so, to get some sort of sign up indicating that there is a fantastic transformation in progress.

[catdaddy]

The soft blue and soft cedar combo sounds fresh and nice. Maybe some curtains in blue/white stripes or polka dots? Coppery soft oranges are a nice compliment to the blue and works well with the warm wood tones.

The menu sounds great. Are there any specialties that you'll offer that other places don't? And you are offering fresh brewed coffee, aren't you?

Maybe I should get you to come interior design I like you ideas. Of course we are doing fresh brewed coffee. I'm gonna buy a coffee grinder and put french presses on the table for coffee. I have a few specials that I will run I'm gonna make a huevos rancheros with a chorizo black bean chili and cilantro sour cream.

As a customer french press sounds great....even enough to put you above any other choice in the area. But as a server, there's no faster way INTO the weeds that making french press for a crowd.

[HungryC]

I don't know nothin' about nothin', but I think you need, if you haven't already done so, to get some sort of sign up indicating that there is a fantastic transformation in progress.

He knows sumpin'.....you need to, ASAP, get a "coming soon" sign with your potential hours & maybe even a draft of your menu posted in the window. People are naturally curious, and your location appears to be in a strip mall...traffic to the other businesses are your potential customers. Get some pre-opening buzz going. Make some biscuits & deliver them to the employees at neighboring businesses, along with a copy of your menu.

When I think of diner breakfasts, it's the small things that matter: homemade or locally made jams, good syrups (sorghum, local honey, mayhaw), etc. Have you considered putting a grilled pimento cheese sandwich on the menu?

[tigerwoman]

a really good corn beef hash is always popular at the brunches we cater. The secret is to poach the corn beef in apple juice - slow simmer a few hours before shredding and mixing with shredded potato and then you can griddle to crispy to order.

Another thought if you are in the middle of cleaning. - we just did some major stainless cleaning and found the orange spray (natural citrus oils) WAS AMAZING for getting the grease off when other products didn't work without major elbow grease -

[CharlotteLuck]

We are done with the painting and cleaning for the most part. We went with different colors than planned but they look great. The metallic gold sets off the room. Here is the menu, we think its a good start. LOL

The Yolk menu

1. Double Up | two farm fresh eggs, meat,TN fries, & toast

2. 2 if by land | two farm eggs, meat, & cheese over grits

3. Wisconsin|three egg cheese omelette w/ TN fries

a. Add ham, bacon, or sausage/1.00 each

b. Add mushroom, spinach, tomato, onion, pepper /.50 each

4. Fun-Guy| three egg white omelete w roasted local mushrooms,fresh herbs, and parmesean w TN fries

5. Yolk & Waffle|... buttermilk pecan waffle w maple bacon butter, two farm fresh eggs, meat, and toast

6. Buttermilk Jack | two buttermilk pancakes w two farm fresh eggs, TN fries, bacon or chicken sausage, & toast

7. Valley of the Sun |two sunny up eggs over crispy tortilla and chorizo chili w salsa verde

8. Washington Oats| Steel cut oats with apple raisin marmalade

9. Hambone Grits| Stone ground grits cooked in ham jus

[heidih]

I love diner breakfasts and these appeal. What struck me though was on the Fun-Guy, which would appeal to the calorie or cholesterol watcher, the fries seem incongruous. Maybe have it standard with seasonal fruit or sliced tomato, and have the fries as a substitute if desired.

[SylviaLovegren]

We are done with the painting and cleaning for the most part. We went with different colors than planned but they look great. The metallic gold sets off the room. Here is the menu, we think its a good start. LOL

Pictures!

What are TN fries?