Yet another breakfast adventure in Cleveland, or rather near Cleveland in the suburb of Independence. This place is open daily until 2p, and that sounds like the kind of place that should know how to do breakfast right.
Instead, I'd say they know how to do breakfast well enough. We arrived at about 10:30a on a Saturday, and had no trouble getting a table, as they have plenty of room. Our waitress was quick to get us coffee and for the duration of the meal she was reasonably attentive.
The coffee is nothing impressive; its the "dishwater" that Europeans complain about in the U.S., but it kept flowing. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have Splenda, but in a pinch the blue stuff will suffice.
I ordered two eggs with cheese, and home fries. And I also got a shortstack of buttermilk pancakes.
My partner got the "Interstate," which is sausage gravy with biscuits, eggs, and potatoes. He got a short stack of French toast on the side.
We had to wait about 20 minutes for our food, and in the mean time, one of the bus boys came by and cleared off our ketchup and Tabasco sauce for some reason.
When the food arrived, it was really underwhelming. My eggs were supposed to be scrambled, but they came out over easy. They were delivered by someone other than our waitress, and I didn't want to send them back and wait longer, so I ate them as they were. I also found that the home fries were really bland and under-prepared. The potatoes and onions were not cooked enough, and they were completely lacking that caramelized crust that makes them worth eating. Instead they were more like a mash of steamed, undersalted diced potatoes with onions. My shortstack was also disappointing, because they arrived barely warm. The butter wouldn't even melt on them.
My partner's meal was more satisfying to him than mine was to me, but he also said it was nothing special. Also, the time came when we needed our ketchup and Tabasco back, and it took us at least 10 minuted to get a hold of anyone. His French toast wasn't bad, but it's nothing I couldn't have made at home at the age of 10.
We chalked this one up to experience, and will most likely not return unless we were forced to go by some culinary martyr who loves the place.