Wayne and I stopped in at The Bluegrass Grill for a Saturday morning breakfast recently. They are about a block from the intersection of Main and Market at 55 East Main St. Another block down the road is Niedlov’s, proving this area is starting to grow with some nice business ventures.
We were surprised when we walked in – there was only one empty table! They were certainly doing a brisk business. The front of the menu touts that “bread is all homemade and all our potato dishes start with boiled red potatoes sautéed in garlic and onion”. Another good thing is that breakfast is served all day. I don’t know why more restaurants don’t do this. We have been to so many that cut it off at a certain time such as 10:30 AM, and if you get there at 10:35, too bad for you!
Breakfast specials are served with your choice of grits or home fries, and biscuits or toast. Of course they offer eggs (two eggs, $3.75) prepared to your specifications, but the sides are a bit different. In addition to sausage or ham, your choices are apple smoked bacon, jalapeno bacon, or Chorizo (meat or soy). Two eggs with one of the meats is $5.50 (add $1.25 for Chorizo).
If you don’t want eggs, you can get scrambled Tofu. There’s also a Mediterranean Frittata ($6.25) made with Feta cheese, tomatoes, Kalamata olives, fresh spinach, onions and spices or an Alderwood Smoked Salmon Frittata ($6.95) with spicy creamed cheese and green onions. Seeveral hash dishes can be found on the menu, sautéed with home fries – corned beef hash, Portobello mushroom hash, tofu hash and cilantro lime tofu hash, with prices from $6.75 to $7.50.
If you don’t want a full breakfast you can order just a biscuit ($1.25), with your choice of filling (eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.) Prices start at $1.25 for a plain biscuit and go to $3.25, depending on your choices.
The Bluegrass Grill offers three-egg (or you can request Egg Beaters for $1.25 more) omelets served with grits or home fries, biscuits or toast ranging in price from $5.95 to $7.95. Some of the selections are Vegetable Supreme, Denver, Cheese, Spanakopita, and Mexican Salsa. Or, if you prefer, you can create your own omelet from the list of veggies, meats and cheeses.
Cereals and Pancakes? They have them – homemade granola, oatmeal, French toast, blintzes and pancakes – buttermilk or honey wheat. There are also several potato dishes priced at $5.95 and $6.95.
If you prefer lunch, you’re in luck. The Bluegrass Grill offers salads made with fresh leaf lettuce using local produce if it’s in season. There’s a Greek, Chef, and Garden salad - $6.95 for the Chef, down to $2.50 for a side salad. They do have homemade soups – a vegetarian black bean chili as well as the soup of the day. On Saturday they did not have any soups.
Baked goods are transfat free and include muffins, cinnamon rolls, brownies and more. They even had Peach or Blackberry cobblers topped with whipped cream ($2.25).
Sandwiches are served on your choice of white, wheat, or Struan (5 Grain) breads with a kosher dill spear and potato salad. There’s Mesquite smoked turkey breast, Gyros, corned beef and swiss, and a grilled portobello, among others. Prices are $3.95 for a grilled cheese, up to $6.95 for the Reuben.
Wayne ordered the meat & cheese omelet ($6.95), which included his choice of ham, bacon or sausage with cheese, with the sides mentioned earlier. He enjoyed the omelet, said it was very good, not overdone.
I ordered the special for that day – Head of the Hooch breakfast. It consisted of black beans, topped with cheese, egg and sausage casserole and that was topped with sour cream, salsa and guacamole, and served with cheese grits and fresh fruit ($7.95). Needless to say I had quite a bit to take home!
The only problem we had was the fact that we could see our order sitting on the window waiting for quite a while. Our server was tending to the cash register and refilling drinks so by the time our plates were served, they were not hot. Even though I had more food than I could eat, I didn’t eat as much there due to the cooled food.
We will probably want to go back to The Bluegrass Grill as we found it to be a nice, cozy little restaurant with friendly people and good food.
Hours for The Bluegrass Grill are 6:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
READER PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK:
“My pet peeve: when a waiter or a waitress asks me "how is everything?" and my mouth is FULL OF FOOD!”
Let us hear from you – cdojanet@chattanoogadineout.com