Esquire has come out with its "59 Best Breakfast Places in America" list, featuring everything from humble Southern cafes serving grits and country ham to Japanese salted salmon and pickles at mod San Francisco cafes. There are "no brunch places allowed" (breakfast, eaten by hunters and old men in John Deere hats is presumably very virile per Esquire logic, but brunch, enjoyed by couples and urban creative types is somehow unmanly). I can personally vouch for several of the selections: the beignets and cafe au lait at Café du Monde in New Orleans (just don't eat the powdered sugar-coated beignets on the windy riverfront while wearing a black dress), the blintzes at Katz's Deli in New York, the waffles at Ye Olde Waffle Shop in Chapel Hill, the grits at Hominy Grill in Charleston (though I don't think the biscuits are all that), the pancakes at Aretha Frankensteins in Chattanooga, the biscuits (and everything else) at Bryant's Bar-B-Q and Breakfast in Memphis, waffles and hash browns at Waffle Houses anywhere in the South.
I'd like to add the bacon maple bar at VooDoo Doughnuts in Portland, the smoked trout hash at Cafe Pasqual's in Santa Fe, the breakfast burritos at Tesuque Village Market in Tesuque, NM, the biscuits with sorghum butter at Lynn's Paradise Cafe in Louisville, the fried chicken biscuits at Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen in Chapel Hill, just to name a few.
What are your favorite breakfast joints? Hey, go ahead and include your favorite brunch places too.
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