Review: Highland Morning

The Baja Benedict served with the Grits of the Day at the Highland Morning. (Credit: Sam Upshaw Jr.)

There’s something ever so slightly naughty about tampering with our deeply-ingrained diurnal dining rhythms. Waffles and omelets? Those are morning fare. And sitting down over a nighttime plate of bacon and eggs? You do it at your own risk: everybody knows scoffing at the established order of things is just asking for trouble. Hence, the paucity of places that dare serve “breakfast anytime.”

But at newly opened Highland Morning (which replaces Caspian Grill in a cozy spot on Bardstown Road), breakfast is what’s for dinner. Yes, the menu does offer sandwiches, burgers, and salads (a half-sandwich, half-salad option is available for $7). But most of the menu is given over to breakfast specialties. And the restaurant’s mission is summed up in its motto: “Breakfast Done Right.”

It’s early days still at Highland Morning, and based on recent visits some slight tweaking is still in order, but there’s plenty to like about this family-owned and operated restaurant that’s already attracting overflow crowds. The ownership group is led by Bruce Coe and includes a raft of actively engaged relatives (including Potter, Slater, and Katie Coe).

One night, for instance, it was worth the price of admission to watch a single server working pretty much the entire dining room. She was cheer personified, and moved as quickly as one of those cinematic martial artists who makes it seem that everyone else in the room is standing still. Come to think of it, most of her colleagues seemed to be watching; there was little of the collaborative teamwork that characterizes well-honed front-of house service So it came as no surprise when our meal arrived tepid from the kitchen. (On a quieter night, when the restaurant was nearly empty, a cook could be heard in the background repeatedly hollering, “Order!” to a lone server who was in the midst of taking an order.)

Tepid or not, it was darned good food. A big, bright yellow omelet was stuffed with fresh green spinach, chunks of tomato, mushrooms, onions, and decorated with a creamy dab of herb-infused sour cream. Better yet, it came with the grits of the day, which that day were spiced up with chunks of chorizo and slivers of jalapeno ($8).

Nearly all the breakfast offerings present a side dish dilemma: grits or skillet-fried potatoes. My advice? Don’t dither. Order a side of the potatoes ($2); cut up in bite-sized cubes, then fried to a crisp, golden finish, they’re among the best fried taters in the city.

You could have those potatoes alongside a fried egg sandwich (a deceptively innocent name for a sandwich that also includes bacon and melted cheese on an English muffin, ($6). You could have them alongside a classic Denver scramble (ham, bell peppers, onions, and cheese, ($8).

Of course, if you’re eating fried potatoes, you might as well plunge right in and order some biscuits covered with a pleasant, peppery sausage gravy as well ($$3.50 half-order; $4.50). I can’t say for certain that gravy uses JD Country Milk, but it’s on the beverage list – whole, 2%, and chocolate –excellent evidence of the kitchen, headed by Chef Chris Roerk (a Wild Eggs veteran), is striving to use some local products.

Speaking of local products, the walls are decorated with black and white photos of Louisville luminaries like Tom Cruise, Pee Wee Reese, and Muhammad Ali. And during a busy service, the place can be as brash and noisy as the Louisville Lip, himself.

A bit of noise isn’t much of a distraction, though, when you’re tucking into something as tasty as Roerk’s Baja Benedict ($8.50), a couple of softly poached eggs perched atop a pleasantly dense corn cake and covered with chorizo, yellow-green slabs of avocado, and a Hollandaise gently infused with the smoky scent of chipotle peppers.