Breakfast Special

Our scrambled, cured, baked, and brewed salute to breakfast.

ILLUSTRATIONS BY BAMBI EDLUND

BREAKFAST, WE LOVE YOU. You, the first and most important meal of the day, make the world right each morning. Without you, we would have no desire to get up before noon.

Don’t let anyone tell you different: You’re best at your simplest. We may wake up and comb our hair and press our collars, but you—you needn’t be so vain. You’re so honorably uncomplicated.

We love you too because you’re a friend to small farmers. Your purity allows local ingredients to shine: Polyface eggs sunny-side-up, with yolks more golden than a sunset; Babes in the Wood sausage from heritage-breed Duroc-Tamworth pigs that graze on woodland and pasture; pancakes, made with fresh stoneground flour from Wade’s Mill.

For those poor souls who aren’t hungry for you at daybreak, you’re still so accommodating. You stick around for lunch, dinner, and even midnight snacks (thank you, all-day breakfast menus!). You’re really the only meal that is as good at 8 p.m. as it is at 8 a.m. Pancakes for dinner? Something special must be happening here.

We don’t want you to get too full of yourself (that’s our job!), but you must already know that you’re easy on the eyes—and easy on the wallet. Even when we’re being frugal, you make us feel indulgent. We could have you for less than $3 a person; dining out, we still wouldn’t spend much more. What other meal can boast of such thrift?

We know you have other suitors, Breakfast. Don’t deny it. What about the men who gather in diners morning after morning to taste your best “lumberjack” platter? You have something special together, and we’re okay with that.

All we ask is that you continue to be there when we wake up. To greet us in our robe and slippers, sleep still in our eyes. Thank you for your loyalty.

In return, we’ve dedicated the next five pages to you—from biscuits to homemade bacon to eggs of all kinds. Please, whatever you do, don’t change a crumb.

DIFF’ERENT YOLKS

Fry up some eggs from a variety of fowl.

“THE MAIN REASON I got into the egg business is because breakfast is my favorite meal,” says Nick Auclair, who along with wife Kate owns Green Fence Farm in Greenville, where chicken, duck, quail, and the occasional goose eggs are for sale (they’re also sold at Farm to You in Lexington and used by many area restaurants; go to greenfencefarm.com for a full list). “I like to combine the different types and fry them up: a few quail eggs, a duck egg, and a chicken egg.” Here, Auclair cracks open the mystery of “other” eggs:

GOOSE

Geese produce big, big eggs, about four times the size of a chicken’s. Now is the time to get one, as they lay in the spring, although not very often. The yolks are thicker, the texture of custard—which can be off-putting in a fried egg if you’re not expecting it, but are great scrambled up (one egg should make enough for two people).

DUCK

Green Fence’s ducks live in rolling coops, allowing the birds to forage for bugs, which make the large yolks a deep, nutrient-rich yellow. Fried duck eggs are delicious. In recipes, consider them to be one-and-a-half times a chicken egg—great in omelets and quiche. What does duck-egg quiche taste like? Visit Staunton’s Newtown Baking to find out.

CHICKEN

Most local eggs come from pasture-raised chickens that also live in mobile coops and feed on insects and seeds. The end result is an egg with less fat, more healthy omega-3s, and more vitamin D. The flavor is earthier and the texture firmer too. Once you’ve gone local, the next factory-farm egg you scramble may actually seem a little bland.

QUAIL

Quail are usually kept in pens—they’re too small to roam the pasture—and produce small eggs that are not quite as rich. The eggs, however, do have a high yolk-to-white ratio, which makes them delicious hard-boiled (just about a minute in a pan of boiling water is all it takes) or fried (several should be enough for a meal).

PERFECT SCRAMBLED EGGS

Some prefer to add milk, others water—but it comes down to personal preference. Either way, the end result is more tender.

Serves 2

4 large eggs

2 Tbsp. whole milk or water

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 Tbsp. butter

1. In a small bowl, whisk eggs and milk for about 2 minutes. Use a tilted rotation to get the right amount of air into your mixture (see illustration).

2. Melt butter in a skillet over low heat; add eggs. With a wooden spoon or spatula, push eggs into the center from the sides to create large, soft curds. Cook 3 or 4 minutes, until just set. Note: If the eggs won’t be eaten immediately, remove them from the stovetop when they’re slightly underdone; they will continue to cook sitting in the pan (even off the heat).

Sunny days

Sunny-side-up is the purest type of fried egg—a cooking method preferred by chefs, who, if you’ll allow us to generalize, tend to swoon at the sight of runny yolks. To make a perfect one, drop the egg into a buttered skilled over low heat (if the heat is too high, the egg will become rubbery). Cook until egg whites look set. If the top appears too runny, place a plate over the skillet to steam for 30 seconds or until done. Slide onto a plate, and serve.

Easy Poaching

Gone are the days of poaching an egg in a pan of simmering water and ending up with a tangled mess. Instead, the silicone Poachpod leaves you with perfectly formed eggs: Simply crack an egg into an oiled Poachpod sitting in boiling water, and cover; it will set in four to six minutes. Available for about $10 at the Seasonal Cook and the Happy Cook in Charlottesville, Kitchen Kupboard in Harrisonburg, and the Farm Basket in Lynchburg.

WORKERS UNITE—FOR BREAKFAST!

A Harrisonburg diner takes a novel approach to food, work, and life.

BY GRAEME JAMIESON

A $4 PLATE OF BLUE MONKEY pancakes promises to be a fireworks of blueberry and banana, and when put on the table, it looks preened and eager to satisfy. One bite, and it certainly lives up to expectations.

Here at the Little Grill Collective, a few blocks off Court Square in Harrisonburg, there is a lineup of eight pancakes, nine omelets, plus 15 breakfast specials, including the desirous breakfast grinder, a scrambled-egg-and-veggie-burger sandwich with cream cheese, Muenster, mushrooms, and onions.

What’s comforting about this joint is its food; what’s special about it are the goings-on behind the scenes. Inspired by restaurant-bakery Casa Nueva in Athens, Ohio, Little Grill is a cleverly organized, worker-owned cooperative, committed to economic, environmental, and social justice. “We are food activists too, exposing people to seasonal items and giving them ideas to take away,” says Colleen Gorman, one of 10 co-owners who work usually three days a week, managing different facets of the business. “It’s a valuable place to invest energy.”

It feels like an incubator for counterculture here. No item on the menu costs more than $10, and the owners are dedicated to sustainability. Everything is either fair-trade, free-range, gluten-free, grass-fed, fresh-picked, farm-raised, local, natural, organic, or compost-friendly. And up to 10 percent of profits is directed to local grassroots organizations, including a nonprofit founded by former owner Ron Copeland called Our Community Place, which offers free meals and workshops to anyone who needs them.

The Little Grill has been here since the 1940s, but transitioned into a collective in 2003 when Copeland decided to attend seminary. “Sharing resources is conceptually gratifying,” says Gorman, the wall behind her hung with faded photos of late friends and artistic renderings of sociocultural greats. No doubt this place has character worth preserving. In fact, any decision that would affect the character requires the support of a super-majority of worker-owners. So how does one become a worker-owner? Employees can be elevated to such a status only after a year of attending meetings, managing projects, and getting to know the place inside out. So expect your servers to be knowledgeable—and the food to be delicious. littlegrillcollective.com.

HOLEY ROLL -ERS

A roundup (get it?) of Central Virginia’s favorite doughnuts and bagels.

A maple-bacon doughnut at Bill’s Pastry.

BILL’S PASTRY Lynchburg’s culinary creativity is on full display with Bill’s maple-bacon doughnut. “The saltysweet combo is definitely what is so good about it,” says owner Kimberly Emerson, whose husband Patrick is the baker. “It’s very much like crumbling bacon over pancakes and pouring maple syrup over top—only instead of pancakes, you get a Bill’s Original Glazed!” billspastry.com

Carpe Donut’s apple-cider topped with cinnamon sugar.

CARPE DONUT Don’t worry, the iconic red wagon that used to dole out organic apple-cider-cinnamon doughnuts all over Charlottesville is still available for special events like weddings (hence the photo above of a sparkly Carpe Donut—seize the day, indeed). Now, though, baker-owner Matt Rohdie has a storefront in McIntire Plaza, making it easy for folks to stop by. Or he can make an office delivery of a couple dozen and a vacuum coffee press, which keeps his fair-trade organic joe quite fresh.

What makes the doughnuts so special is the thoughtful mix of organic and local ingredients. “We’ve moved away from certified-organic eggs in favor of local pastured eggs,” says Rohdie. “Local pastured eggs are more sustainable. Plus, they taste better.” carpedonut.org

SPUDNUTS It’s true, these doughnuts are actually made from potatoes—potato flour, that is. That single ingredient is credited with making them airier than traditional doughnuts—a recipe that started in Utah and spread to Charlottesville, where Spudnuts has been serving up its docket of flavors since 1969: glazed, chocolate, cinnamon, coconut, and blueberry cake. Consistency (and sugar) has its virtues. spudnutshop.com

Mr. J’s French toast and mixed berry bagels.

MR. J’S BAGELS When New Jerseyans Joey and Dave Jerlinski couldn’t find a good bagel in Harrisonburg, what else could they do but open a bagel bakery of their own? And so goes the story of the birth of Mr. J’s, where savory flavors like Asiago cheese and sundried tomato sit alongside sweet “French toast” and mixed berry. How do they manage French toast on a bagel? They don’t; they work bits of it into an egg bagel and top it with cinnamon sugar. Sweet glory. mrjsbagels.com

BODO’S Each of the three Charlottesville locations serves a whopping 6,000 New York—Style bagels each day. Boiled and then baked to achieve that nice shiny crust, the bagels only get better with a schmear of one of the house cream cheeses: herb, olive, blueberry, smoked salmon, low-fat Neufchatel. We’re partial to the 100 percent whole-wheat bagel, a difficult bread to make. But the folks at Bodo’s have found a way. And we thank them for it. bodosbagels.com

Makin’ Bacon …with Clifton Inn chef Tucker Yoder.

BY ANGEL GUNN

THE PORK BELLY ON THE COUNTER is a thing of beauty, a glorious pink-and-white-striped rectangle of fat and meat. Chef Tucker Yoder, in his crisp white chef’s coat, makes eye contact with the slab and smiles, contemplating the bacon it will become. As cooks bustle behind him in the immaculate kitchen of Charlottesville’s historic Clifton Inn, Yoder points to the striations on the side of the pork belly, noting that you want at least two stripes of meat. “You want the fat too,” he says. “Fat is good.”

Fat is flavor. And flavor is why this New England Culinary Institute—trained chef likes to cure bacon himself. “It’s like anything else you make at home,” he says, as he measures the salt, brown sugar, and curing salts (a preservative that is not necessary for flavor but gives bacon its reddish color and long shelf life). “You can control exactly what goes in and what it tastes like in the end.” The mixture looks like it belongs in a child’s sandbox, and Yoder plays his fingers through it.

He adds a tailor-made blend of spices: green coriander seeds, cumin seeds, and whole juniper berries, which have all been toasted and ground. He likes to alter the concoction according to season, using sage instead of juniper in fall, lemon zest and thyme in summer.

Seasonality has always mattered to Yoder, having arrived this past fall at the Clifton Inn from the Red Hen, a restaurant he helped develop in Lexington that is dedicated to sourcing foods locally. Yoder has hit the ground running in his new post, expanding the kitchen gardens and sourcing even more from area artisans.

Fast-forward five days—during which time the pork has cured in the refrigerator—and the bacon is firm. Yoder rinses off the salt mixture, and proceeds to smoke the meat. His preferred method is a Weber grill and a bundle of sticks and leaves he’s collected from the grounds (he eschews wood chips and pine in favor of applewood or grapevine, even though “anything you like the smell of when it’s burning will do”).

When it comes to eating bacon, Yoder uses it in almost every meal. He’s even been known to infuse bourbon with the stuff. For breakfast at Clifton, though, he serves it the traditional way—well, sort of. “We render it and use the fat like we would butter,” he says, “because we like bacon a lot.”

Our bacon-making lesson with chef Yoder was a press exclusive. But he does offer monthly cooking demonstrations (on various topics) at the Clifton Inn (thecliftoninn.com).

TUCKER YODER’S HOMEMADE BACON

4 to 5 pounds pork belly (skin off)

2 cups Kosher salt

1 cup light brown sugar

4 Tbsp. curing salt (also called “pink salt”; optional)

2 Tbsp. green coriander seeds

1 Tbsp. cumin seeds

2 Tbsp. whole juniper berries

1. In a medium bowl, mix together salt, brown sugar, and curing salt.

2. Put coriander, cumin, and juniper berries into a dry pan; place over medium heat and cook until fragrant (about 2 minutes).

3. In a grinder or food processor, pulse toasted spices until rough. Mix into salt mixture.

4. With pork on a metal sheet pan, rub a light coating of the spice mixture on all sides of the meat.

5. Cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in refrigerator five days. Check the meat daily, turning it over and dumping excess liquid.

6. After five days, the pork belly should be firm to the touch. Rinse cure off in cold water and pat dry. Slice and fry bacon, or smoke it first (see step 7).

7. To smoke: Light a bundle of leaves and sticks in center of a charcoal grill. Place pork on outside edge of grill, and close lid to put out fire. Let sit 15 to 20 minutes. Refrigerate up to 8 days or freeze for up to 3 months.

Pig Candy

With a name like that, who wouldn’t love this mind-blowing mix of sweet and salty: bacon baked with brown sugar, cinnamon, and cayenne. At Bluegrass Grill in Charlottesville, two strips of “pig candy” ($3.95) arrive at the table so that you have something to nibble on while you wait for the main course. Or, in our case, so you have time to wish this were the main course.

A CHEFS BEST BREAKFAST

Three area restaurateurs share what turns them on first thing in the morning.

Dave Ellis of Mangia, Lynchburg

“Every Sunday morning, I eat the same thing: shrimp and grits with two fried eggs on top. In Charleston, where shrimp and grits are a staple, it’s typically made with a brown roux-based sauce. But since Mangia is an Italian restaurant, I make it for the brunch menu using Marsala and pancetta. Then two sunny-side-up eggs go on top of it all. And of course, I always use the toast on the side to sop up the sauce and the runny yolks.”

Harrison Keevil of Brookville, Charlottesville

“Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. That was instilled in me by my grandfather. Every Thanksgiving my whole family used to get together at his farm in Prince George County, and all 10 cousins would race to be the first one up in the morning to get the seat next to our grandfather. And it was always the same breakfast: Edwards smoked sausage (a Virginia product), bacon, English muffins, sunny-side-up eggs.”

Peter Stogbuchner of Hazel River Inn, Culpeper

“I am from Austria, where my mother used to make Viennese crumbed eggs, which I now serve at the restaurant. You make them by dipping poached eggs in breadcrumbs and sautéing them in butter. It’s a little labor intensive; frying the poached eggs can be tricky because they’re so fragile. But they taste good—really good. Especially with some pork speck that I cure myself.”

For the Love of Biscuits

An ode to those most Southern of breads.

BY NATALIE ERMANN RUSSELL

BISCUITS ARE AN IMPORTANT food group in our house. Not just because good ones are a paradox of fluffy and crunchy, light and dense, but because they drew me to Virginia in the first place.

My husband Steve and I met when we were living in New York City, where needless to say, good Southern biscuits are hard to come by. Having been raised far, far south of the Big Apple, Steve wanted the real Mc- Coy—none of those citified froufrou biscuit wannabes. Jalapeno-chive-rosemary biscuits with Stilton cheese? Talk about gilding the lily. No, we wanted to live where plain ol’ country biscuits could reliably be eaten all over town.

We found that life in Virginia. More specifically, we found it at the first place where we ate breakfast in Charlottesville. Moving boxes barely opened, we took a break to go to the Tavern, where, if you choose your seat wisely, you can see into the kitchen in the back to watch traditional no-frills biscuits being rolled out and baked.

Going out to diners, though, will only take you so far. I spent many a Sunday morning attempting (and failing) to make a blue-ribbon version at home. I tinkered with different flours (Southern bakers swear by White Lily and Martha White flours, which are lighter in weight and have less gluten than traditional flours), but mine still didn’t measure up. As my sassy friend Frances would say: “You get a man with your buns; you keep him with your biscuits.”

Unfortunately, my biscuits weren’t going to hold anyone’s attention. But then I discovered that the perfect biscuit is borne of completely cold ingredients and tools—the butter, the bowl, the flour, my fingers. After sticking my Martha White and my metal mixing bowls in the freezer for a few minutes and submerging my hands up to the wrists in ice water (a measure I’ve since come to view as extreme), the dough came together like magic.

A short 12 minutes later, the crusty browned tops, when pulled away, revealed a warm, pillowy inside. We slathered each half with butter and local jam, and toasted to our new life of biscuits in Virginia. At that point, we had been here already a year, but only then did it really feel like home.

BASIC ROLLED BISCUITS

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

To make whole-wheat biscuits, reduce white flour to 1½ cups, and add ½ cup whole-wheat flour.

Makes 6 to 8 biscuits

2 cups all-purpose flour

2½ tsp. baking powder

¾ tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces ¾ cup milk

1. Preheat oven to 450°. Whisk together the first three ingredients in a large bowl. Cut in the butter with a pastry blender (or two knives), until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

2. Add the milk, and mix just until the dry ingredients are moistened (if the dough is too wet, add a dash more flour). With a lightly floured hand, gather the dough into a ball and knead it gently against the sides and bottom of the bowl, just 5 to 10 times. Do not overknead.

3. On a lightly floured surface, pat the dough to ¾ inch thick. Cut out rounds with a drinking glass or biscuit cutter dipped in flour. Reroll scraps and cut additional biscuits (note: they’re never as tender as the first-cut).

4. Place the biscuits in a pie pan so they are touching (for fluffier results). Bake until golden brown on top, 10 to 12 minutes. Serve hot.

MORNING JOE

What’s percolating in Central Virginia.

FOR MANY FOLKS it just wouldn’t be breakfast without a steaming cup of coffee. And as any java junkie knows, a daily ritual this important deserves fresh-roasted beans from one of the area’s great micro-roasters:

CENTRAL COFFEE ROASTERS Packaged in biodegradable bags, Sperryville’s Central Coffee roasts most of its blends to a dark “full city roast,” causing the oils to migrate just to the surface of the beans. This is good because those same oils release amazing flavor once the coffee is brewed. centralcoffeeroasters.com

GRAINS OF SENSE What started as a health-conscious bakery in Staunton has morphed into an organic fair-trade coffee roastery. Dedicated to single-origin coffees—so you can taste the terroir—Grains of Sense roasts the coffee by hand in small casts less than 15 minutes before it’s bagged. grainsofsense.com

LESTER’S BEST A blues singer by night, Lester Bowers helps people wake up a little happier in the morning. Notably, he uses a “fluid bed roaster,” which uses convection technology to heat the beans. His coffee is served at several Staunton restaurants but is only available in bags at Cranberry’s, where Bowers is also a “celebrity barista” every weekday morning. gocranberrys.com/coffee.php

LEXINGTON COFFEE This award-winning micro-roaster has been at it for more than 20 years, offering single-origin and blend coffees grown around the world. The coffee is the focus here (especially the espresso), but there’s also a commitment to improving the lives of those who grow and harvest the beans, through organizations like Grounds for Health and Cup for Education. lexingtoncoffee.com

LUCAS ROASTING COMPANY Armed with a small Diedrich roaster, this roastery in Broadway is able to keep quality high in both its blends and single-origins. We’d be remiss not to mention Lucas’ Blue Ridge Breakfast Blend, which makes a great cup of wake-meup coffee—even on Monday morning. lucasroasting.com

SHENANDOAH JOE COFFEE At this Charlottesville roastery, everything is bagged and blended by hand and to order. The commitment to small-batch artisan coffees—and the centerpiece San Franciscan roaster—have consistently drawn the coffee-loving masses, enough to warrant opening a namesake coffeehouse in 2007. Shenandoah Joe may have gotten bigger digs, but they still believe in roasting coffee in small batches, to ensure the best flavor. shenandoahjoe.com

TRAGER BROTHERS COFFEE Seattle transplants Joe and William Trager know coffee, and they know it’s best when done by hand and with love. They’ve taken a brewpub approach to it all, welcoming visitors to the Lovingston facility—and a new outdoor seating space—to watch their vintage cast-iron, gas-powered roaster at work. tbcroasters.com

EATING FACE

A diner where it’s okay to pour syrup on your head.

WHAT DO STEPHEN COLBERT, Amelia Earhart, the Blues Brothers, and Holly Go Lightly have in common? They’ve all had their likeness grace the fluffy flapjacks at Blue Moon Diner in Charlottesville. Not listed on the menu or advertised in any way, these special powdered-sugar- coated masterpieces come out most of the time as a surprise to the customer (although the kitchen does grant requests, depending what stencils are still functioning at the moment). This is all the work of creative genius Jon Hampton, resident stencil and griddle virtuoso. “It started when I cut a simple moon stencil out of a to-go box,” says Hampton, who spends about eight hours designing and cutting each one. “I realized I could do something more complicated—you know, I used to do the illegal kind of stenciling on buildings.”

So Hampton started playing around with the artwork of M.C. Escher, as well as faces with a lot of detail, especially those with glasses. He’s even been known to capture the diner’s regular customers, making it feel a little like Cheers. Wouldn’t you like to go where everybody knows your…face?

Ham It Up

Years Calhoun’s Ham House in Culpeper has been in business: 45 Country ham biscuits sold locally last year: 135,000 Months it takes to dry cure a Calhoun’s ham: 6 to 12 How do they do it? Calhoun’s gets its biscuits from nearby Knakal’s Bakery. “At Christmas time, there are two lines out the door in Culpeper,” says owner Tom Calhoun. “One line is at Knakal’s and the other line is at my place.” calhounhams.com

LOVE TO VACUUM

Coffee aficionados are captivated by vacuum presses like this Bodum Santos—because of the flavorful brew and because of the process (it can all be done on the stovetop). As if by magic, the boiling water in the bottom jug is sucked up into the top, and then drips back down as a sediment-free pot of joe. $90 at the Happy Cook in Charlottesville.