John Currence of the City Grocery is about to open (this Wednseday) a new breakfast and lunch place, Big Bad Breakfast. He’s built a big cinder block smokehouse out back, and is curing and smoking bacon and andouille over hickory; the bacon is already turning up in dishes at the City Grocery. He’s curing the bacon using the pulp that’s a side product of the making of Tabasco sauce, and it’s very fine stuff.
The idea here is a 7 day a week breakfast and lunch diner- style place. It’ll be open at 6 AM on weekdays, and have some breakfast stuff on the lunch menu. I’ve seen the current draft of the menu (a work in progress), which is full of Oxford literary references. At breakfast: Lots of egg options, pain perdu (brandy-spiked french toast with mixed beries, whipped cream, and maple syrup), a croque madame egg bake, Belgian waffle, creamed chipped beef on toast with sausage gravy (sausage smoked out back…), scratch-made buttermilk biscuit with pork or chicken and a slice of cheddar. At lunch: Some of the breakfast options (a chili/cheese omelet), coca cola-brined fried chicken, griddle burgers (which include as a option pimento cheese, a nod to Georgian-turned-Oxonian John T. Edge), sandwiches. There will be more, I hear.
Yesterday during the Oxford Farmers Market, they had an open house, offering anyone who turned up sausage and cathead biscuits or bacon and cathead biscuits (both were yummy). It’s located in the Midtown Shopping Center on North Lamar where the Farmers Market is, right next to Market Rhes.
The menu also devotes considerable space to what amounts to a declaration of principles. Here’s some:
- All of our bacon and sausage is made from organic free-range pork and smoked on premises in the Big Bad Smokehouse.
- Eggs are coming from a variety of cage free local suppliers.
- Dairy products, where available, are coming from Billy Ray’s Farm in Yocona. Cattle is all organic andgrass fed.
- We use Mississippi State cheese wherever we can… only because there is no Rebel Cheese, which would surely be more tateful and refined. …
- Whenever possible, we source local produce and all of the herbs used come from the chef’s organic garden.
- If ever we offer catfish, you can bet your ass it’s Mississippi Delta Farm-Raised catfish. …
It’s also apparently going to have the friendliest front-of-the-house staff in town.
Um . . . go easy with me now, but . . . what is a cathead biscuit? Don’t know whose eyes are bigger right now, Kate’s or mine.
Lotus,
http://www.deltablues.net/biscuit.html
I’m almost sure there in the Miss. Delta cookbook you just recently bought. Here’s a description: from this page. I don’t think they are really the size of a cathead.
I think they’re pretty much all over the south.
Where is the location of the Big, Bad Breakfast?
pwnd by A1A– that’s the same link I just posted.
Like the Larry Brown references.
I’m with Ben, sounds great but where can I find this Big Bad Breakfast?
In Oxford, Mississippi in MidTown Shopping Center on North Lamar about 5 or so blocks north of the courthouse square.
Thanks. Can’t wait to try it.
Worst omelet I’ve ever had. Waited 45 minutes for it also……………Plus it was 84 degrees in there. Not going back
I’ve eaten there twice, and had a good omelet one of the times.
I am hearing people say things that sound to me like a restaurant working out kinks during their first week open, but I’ve had a really good experience so far.
Don, sorry to read you had a bad experience at BBB. Judging from the date of you post, you must have eaten on one of the first couple of days we were open. As with all openings, there are kinks to work out and immediate adjustments to make…not the least of which is nailing down the system in the kitchen. That combined with the fact that we got swamped the first three days we were open made for some bad experiences unfortunately. In all six of the openings we have done in the last 16 years we have had tweaking to do and all we can do is hope our first guests are understanding and communicate with us.
Our air issue was corrected in the first week (we had never had 70 people in the room with all the equipment on and the HVAC just couldn’t keep up) and our system in the kitchen was adjusted and running relatively smoothly after the first couple of days. Currently when at our busiest times we are running average ticket times of 12-14 minutes.
Again, I am sorry you had a bad experience and would love to have the opportunity to buy you an omelette. Please send me an email or call if you would be willing to make another run at the BBB.
Thanks,
John
I had breakfast at the BBB two weeks ago and it was fantastic. I had the Big Bad Breakfast plate and everything was great. Biscuit is light and fluffy, sausage gravy is spicy, and the bacon is unique: thick, crispy, and smokey. Also, it says a lot that the owner is taking time to address individual concerns from blog commenters. Good job sir.
Ben @ 13,
If you think the sausage gravy is spicy….try the tomato gravy on your next trip…..it’ll cure what ails ya!
And the serving is large enough to spread on the biscuit with enough leftover to mix in with the grits.
Does BBB serve alcoholic beverages?
Had breakfast there 2 times the week of the Presidential debate and I have to say it may have been 2 of the best meals I have eaten. I highly recommend the in-house make pig products(andouille, BACON, and breakfast sausage), the super light and fluffy pancakes and the best damn french toast I have ever had. This is the way food should be made. Even though the place was packed on both days the service was fast and friendly. I also tried to get some bacon for the road(I live 6 hours away) but it was near the end of the batch and the next batch was not ready yet…oh well, next time.
Check out Currence’s new blog “Big Bad Chef” on Garden & Gun Magazine’s site! http://www.gardenandgun.com or http://www.thebigbadchef.com