Could be the morning drive into the country. Could be the frequent coffee refills. Could be the exceptionally friendly service or the good old fashioned love of country.
It could be a combination of all of the above that make country diners a restaurant genre of their own. And within that genre, it's almost a given that breakfast will be done well.
That was the expectation as I drove out to McGregor this morning for breakfast at the Coffee Shop Cafe. Cory and I met at the McGregor diner, presumably to discuss WacoFork business, but we spent the most time discussing characters from the Harry Potter epic.
When I said something like "She had to have planned to take Voldemort from a vague, spiritual being to an actual person," I might have drawn some stares from a few of the old folks at the tables around us.
We also marveled at the plethora of food served us. I ordered a waffle with sausage patties. I finished the sausages, though not the waffle. It was great, but there was a lot of it, you know? Cory went for the breakfast special — two eggs, bacon and a short stack of pancakes. He didn't finish the pancakes.
With pancakes and waffles, it's almost like they're daring the diner to finish them. Not just Coffee Shop either. See Monday's blog concerning the size of the pancake from Cafe Cappuccino.
Is this because lumberjacks set the bar for pancake consumption and we're all expected to eat up to it?
The other thing I noticed this morning was that my mug promoted the Coffee Shop's association with George W. Bush's Western White House. I'm not one for talking politics too much, but it's nice to think there's somewhere in the world where George W. Bush will always have a 100 percent approval rating. Wherever you land on the political spectrum, you have to respect people who stick to their guns*.
So there you have it. The Coffee Shop Cafe hits all the major point of the country diner. Friendly service, plenty of food and coffee refills, and undying love of country.
*This is a metaphor and not an endorsement of the NRA.
