avablog

We finally got to the Bluebird Diner this morning with Grandma Georgie, who’s in town to take us to The Nutcracker this afternoon. It was good. The servers are still becoming familiar with the menu, which is no surprise, as it’s fairly extensive. We arrived at 8:40 and pretty much had our choice of seats, but by nine, there was a wait. It’s the same at Hamburg Inn and Lou Henri’s, in my experience. You can still get in to Mickey’s before 10, but then they fill up, too.

I was pleased to see chicken fried steak with sausage gravy, hash and eggs, and other classics on the menu. To get a good comparison with Hamburg, I ordered the chicken fried steak, which comes with two eggs your style, hash browns, and toast. Everything was very flavorful. The hash browns appeared to be fresh; the steak was reportedly breaded in-house, and the rye toast was perfectly toasted, lightly buttered. My only complaint — and given how important an indicator a good gravy is, it’s a biggie — is that the sausage gravy was a bit on the floury side. If I can’t see the faintest little pools of liquefied grease sitting atop the gravy, I get worried. But it wasn’t inedible. The food came out in a timely manner, and the coffee had a nice roasted flavor. Ava loved her bacon and pancake. The owner came by as we were preparing to leave, and I didn’t have to lie when I said everything was very good. I think Lou Henri pays more attention to its plates, and I didn’t see anything on the Bluebird menu that would rival Lou’s huevos diablo, but Bluebird is definitely a welcome addition to the breakfast options downtown. I’m eager to get by for lunch sometime to see what their sandwich menu is like.