The American breakfast, bacon and eggs, is alive and well at Portland diners and hash houses. But the tab has gone sky high. While we’re all having sticker shock as consumers, perhaps the most egregious price hikes beyond the gas pump are for something we’ve long taken for granted.
The basic diner-menu breakfast used to include two eggs, bacon, ham or sausage, home fries and toast. I remember it being $6.99 not too long ago. But after a doing a round up of breakfast haunts, which I started in January, I’ve found it’s a solid $10 to $12 and higher for basic breakfast fare– the pay more and get less syndrome. It’s like the pound of coffee that shrank to 12 ounces some years ago; or boxed cake mixes now at 15. 25 ounces that used to weigh in at 18.5 ounces. Even the shampoo that I’ve used for year came out with packaging that proclaimed a “new look, but same old formula” The new look was a shrunken bottle weighing 10 ounces instead of 12. So far a pound of butter is still a pound. Woe be the day when those 4 ounce sticks become 3; there’d be mayhem in kitchens everywhere.
Two eggs, sausage patty, home fries and raisin toast at Moody’s
The reliable greasy spoons that we love are charging ahead with full seats after the pandemic closed off most dining counters. Here’s what you get nowadays at breakfast places in and around Greater Portland’s diners and dives.
Hot Suppa. Only a few stools at the counter are available in this shoebox of a space, so one doesn’t have much choice but to sit close to your neighbor. There is still table seating. Their classic B&E is called the Hollis and costs $12 or $16 with bacon or sausage. But the eggs are good, though no crispy edges and the thick bacon is a bit chewy. The hash browns are tasty, reasonably crisp, but I’ve had better. And what’s with the one slice of toast instead of the usual two? All in all not a bad breakfast. B+
B&E plate–the Hollis–at Hot Suppa with one slice of toast and classic hash browns and smoky bacon
Hot Suppa’s evocative mural at the entry vestibule
