Tired of cold pizza and beer for breakfast? My recent visit to Jack and Benny’s, 2563 N. High St., uncovered an inexpensive diner with the best morning fare I’ve ever tasted. Though the interior is less than luxurious, the flavor and value of the wide menu is more than sufficient to justify the inconvenient parking and seating area.
Parking appeared to be limited to the street or nearby lots across High Street. Inside, you’ll find parking your buns even more difficult. J&B’s doesn’t offer seating for groups of more than four guests, unless putting a chair on the end of a small booth counts as a solution.
J&B’s also seems to turn tables slower than your standard chain restaurant. This presents some mixed results: On one hand, no one is hassling you to leave, giving you time to sit and enjoy your morning coffee and paper. On the other hand, it leads to a buildup of customers standing in the minuscule waiting area. To the unlucky guests seated near the door, this translates to hungry strangers greedily eyeing your comestibles.
To add insult to injury, smoke-able cancer sticks are prohibited, forcing suicidal guests to kill themselves alone in the cold. That’s not American.
The kitchen is completely visible to guests and looked swell to me. While waiting, the smells wafting over the counter were a delicious hint of what was in store. After about fifteen minutes, we were seated, and our waitress quickly took our drink order and returned with my coffee. While it was no Arabica (damn you Jimmy John’s!), I can gladly report that it was hot and fresh, without any acidic-burnt taste. For those inclined to drink juice or pop with breakfast, be warned that J&B’s serves these drinks in bottles, obviously without free refills.
The classy décor consists mainly of pictures of the dead and famous like Elvis and The Duke. This combined with the Rug-Rats placemats led me to believe that the ambiance isn’t the main thrust of this enterprise.
It’s sad; I expected a more upscale atmosphere from a diner advertising a Gut Buster combo-meal.
Speaking of which, my artery-clogging combination of eggs, hash browns, bacon, ham, sausage, cheese and toast slathered in sausage gravy was magnificent, though it’s probably not wise to tempt a history of heart disease. Each individual component of my Gut Buster was great on its own; the bacon was crisp though not burned, the egg was scrambled to the right texture, etc., etc.
Combined, the synergy created by this proactive little self-starter was unbelievable. Let’s just say this baby was inhaled faster than an eight ball in the Oval Office. Adding to its greatness is its five-dollar price tag. William “Brit” Kirwan would do well to learn the Gut Buster’s lesson of Yale-quality at a land-grant price.
Co-Masticator April’s breakfast consisted of hash browns, toast and sunny-side-up eggs. She commented, “This tastes great, just like my stepdad’s trucker breakfast. The eggs were perfect; not too runny but no crunchy spots.”
Jarrod told me, “I love the atmosphere here. From the looks of it, everyone here is skipping church too and that makes me feel good. My potato pancake was very well prepared. It had a green pepper and onion flavor, though those ingredients weren’t present in the dish. The coconut pancake was sweet, yet subtle. Both it and the chocolate pancake were so good I didn’t want to use syrup on them.”
In closing, if you’re one of the three breakfast people reading my column, I can’t recommend this place enough. They’re open Tuesday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Breakfast for two will run you about 10 bucks.
Hank Mylander is a junior in information systems from Westerville. He is positive that Tropical Punch Kool-Aid is by far the best tasting Kool-Aid flavor around. Like-minded powdered drink connoisseurs can reach the Masticator at [email protected].
