Join Me For Breakfast, Part 1

Every fall, when the high school soccer season rolls around, breakfast becomes the most important meal of the day for me. Most nights, I work two matches, running between four and six miles per night trying to keep up with boys and girls one-third my age. In general, the time period is between 4:30 and 9:00 PM, so there are no more five-course wine tasting dinners for about 90 days. Breakfast becomes my biggest meal of the day, my wake-up call, my blood sugar boost. Over the next few weeks, at least once or twice a month, I'll ask you to join me for breakfast, even if only vicariously.

The past couple of weeks, I've stayed relatively close to home, on the east side of Akron. One of the neat things about breakfast is that it gives me a chance to try a lot of the little “local favorite” places that I might not choose for fine dining. There are a lot of these in Akron, and I plan to visit as many as possible.

I started with the Wally Waffle on Darrow Road on the Akron/Tallmadge border. There is another Wally's near Children's Hospital, and I'll get there too, soon. There used to be a couple of other locations, but I believe with the closing of the Wallhaven store, just these two remain. This particular one, which is still thought of as a Tallmadge restaurant, was located on “the Circle” for many years. Personally, I felt that when it moved into this strip mall location, it wasn't quite as good even though it kept most of the same menu items. But over time, I think it's rebounded, and is still one of the better breakfast hangouts. On this visit, I ordered the waffle and egg sandwich, but I can attest that the Eggs Benedict is one of the best around.

Next day, I went to one of the most highly guarded secrets in Cuyahoga Falls, Flury's Cafe. One of these days, I'll do a full piece on this little gem, but I think the main thing you should know is that Chef Kim turns out some of the most original recipe dishes in our area. It's a little hard to find. 1300 Sackett is off the beaten trail, hunkered down in a part of the Falls that's more a residential neighborhood. It's tiny, with only two booths, some outdoor tables, and around six stools at the counter. But everything on the breakfast menu is hand made from scratch, including the red velvet pancakes with sweet cream cheese sauce shown here. Totally yummy, and just the sort of complex carbs I need for running.

I think the best two chains for breakfast are Bob Evans and EatNPark. I'll get to Bob's next time, but on this particular visit to the EatNPark at Chapel Hill Plaza, I tried out their version of Eggs Benedict with home fries. The poached eggs were done just runny right, the Canadian Bacon was salty, and the Hollandaise Sauce was creamy and lemony. I did add a dash of salt, and maybe it was a mistake to put ketchup on my fries.

On a really hungry morning, I headed out to Farmer Boy in Springfield Township. This place is so busy that you often have to park next door, although it always amazing how many tables it holds. I hardly ever have to wait. I went for the steak and eggs special here, as it was actually almost closer to lunch than early morning. As you might be able to tell from the picture, this is way more food than most people could eat at one sitting, even someone with a training table appetite.

My last stop during this particular cycle was Delanie's, which is on West Avenue just off the Tallmadge Circle. Here I tried out another hearty favorite, corned beef hash with basted eggs. While I prefer this dish with the eggs poached, this version worked nearly as well. They recently brought in a new morning chef for the breakfast hours, and the menu has really been upgraded.