MISS MOOX: 
Search results for breakfast

The Round-up:

• Food - 3 out of 5
• Decor - 3.5 out of 5
• Service - 3 out of 5
• Overall - 9.5 out of 15

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Several months ago a food-loving group was created on Facebook. Its name was the "Cathedral Village Needs a Cheap Breakfast Place", or something like that. It seems that the Village just hadn't been the same since the Quality Tea Room shut down several years back.

I quickly joined the group, as did several hundred other Regina folks (What did we ever do before Facebook groups became the new face of activism, by the way?).
The Facebook fan page continued to grow, many of its members calling for a cheap plate of hash browns and bacon . . . like now.

Well, some wishes do come true.

The Mercury Cafe and Grill opened its doors in April. The place seemed to spring up overnight on the corner of 13th and Robinson streets in a spot that has housed numerous other restaurants.

The Mercury is a diner, no doubt about that. From the bright red vinyl booths to the formica and chrome tables, stepping into The Mercury is like stepping back 50 or 60 years in time. The Mercury is also under the same ownership as Regina's well-loved Novia Cafe, another all-out diner. This is a good thing -- who better to start a new diner than the folks who run one of the city's oldest and best?

I've been to The Mercury twice now, once for breakfast and once for supper. It's hard to find the right word to describe both experiences. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't horrible either. Perhaps satisfactory is the right word.

Weekend breakfast bustles and hustles in The Mercury. If you're not there by 11 on a Sunday, you're going to wait in line for awhile. Granted, The Mercury could easily jam a few more tables into the dining room in order to shave some time off the waiting game.

Your choices for breakfast are classic standbys: bacon and eggs; hash browns; pancakes; an omelette. You get the picture. Now, is it cheap? That depends on your definition of cheap. Most items run around the $8-9 mark, plus the cost of coffee and/or juice. I've had cheaper, but I've also had more expensive.

Service can be a little disorganized, but hopefully the servers work that out amongst themselves as the restaurant irons out the operating wrinkles. We had to wait 30 minutes for any food to hit the table at breakfast, almost enough to push us to the breaking point, but not quite. Fortunately, our waitress took good care of us in the meantime.

Now let's talk about supper for a moment. Once again, there are few surprises on the evening menu. Nachos; chicken wings; chicken fingers; burgers; clubhouse sandwiches; and grilled cheese are a few of the choices.

We ordered up a plate of nachos to get things started. With a $10 price tag, we pictured a nice platter of cheesy chips and veggies. We couldn't have been more wrong. A dinner plate with a puny pile of nachos on it was what we got. Even worse: the scarce bits of cheese on the chips were overcooked and rubbery. Epic fail, my friends. Epic fail.

Next up: the burgers. Now this is where the action is at. Tender homemade beef patties are smooshed between fresh buns with all the fixins. I went for the Mushroom Swiss. Big Willie had The Mercury Burger (two patties with fried onions, mushrooms, shaved ham, Swiss and cheddar cheese). All burgers come with a side. We went for the french fries and they were done to perfection.

Big Poppa (my dad) went for the open-faced Hot Turkey Sandwich . . . which came with hot chicken, oddly enough. But he got past that.

All in all, The Mercury offers up decent food in a comfortable room. The motto seems to be: come as you are, eat what you will. Now if they'd only fine-tune the nachos and up the portion size for most of the breakfast menu, we might have a sure-fire winner on our hands.

(no website)

We've been hanging around...
enjoying the last snows of winter (maybe).

Knitting by the fire. This is a new fave hat... Elizabeth Zimmerman: Ganomy Hat.Warm over the ears, but with a slight split in the back perfect for a pony tail.

Hanging out with Dad in the "sugar shack" as he boiled down some maple syrup.

The buckets just kept coming...

He rigged up his own version of a maple sugar cooker:
~One old used stainless Maytag washing machine barrel~One burn barrel~Smoke stack~Damper~Wood

Put a wood fire in the bottom to heat the sap... Let the steam begin!

Used the camp stove to finish it off.

We've been dreaming of seeds...Dreaming of the muck drying out enough to actually get outside!

This guy was dreaming of lunch and was hanging around at the chicken coop today.
The ladies raised such a fuss we headed back to see what was going on and foiled his plans of attack, although... it was close. The ladies dashed under a pine and I was able to get them back in the coop as the hawk sat about 10 feet off the ground watching us!

This will be hanging around the kitchen for the next "farm fresh breakfast". The early syrup is light and sweet. (Thanks Dad!!)
Worth hanging around for... that's for sure !!

Was down for the count most of the week with a migraine. It was constant and would flare up at the worst times, like at an installation or right before a charity event. Awesome. If you have ever had a migraine you know of which I speak. I've had them for 15 + years and they are absolute agony. When I called the emergency doc last night he told me the good news is that I probably won't have them after menopause. My reaction? I said "Um, you don't tell a single, 35 year old woman who desperately wants children to 'hold out for menopause'!" His reaction "You're funny! Sorry to laugh but that's good stuff." Really Dr. Chuckles, glad someone is laughing! As Ross on Friends would say "What a weird way to kick me when I'm down!"

Worked but at half capacity so I don't have any pics to show. I had to leave one install in the middle and cancel another one. I hate disappointing clients! I know it is just decorating and not like I am late getting their new heart to them in time for the transplant but I still feel guilty! So again, my apologies to you sweet, patient clients. Please don't fire me!

Got the photos back from my photoshoot in my office with John Chilton. He did a great job! Here is a lil' taste...

Watched Sixteen Candles for the 8,274 time. My 24 year old cousin recently got married and his sweet wife said to me "So guess what I did this weekend? I watched some movies from your generation...Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Some Kind of Wonderful." If you are reading, I adore you but MY GENERATION???? I am only 10 years older than you. 10 years does not a generation make. And since I like to think that I am still 24, let's hold off on the age-gap talk. Love ya!

Please note the grasscloth. Perhaps the only good thing about 80's decor.

It's the Annual Cooper River Bridge Run this weekend in Charleston. Am I running it? No. I walk the bridge 2x a week so I don't need to do it with 3,000 other people. But I am excited for all the folks that are excited about running it! It will be a fun weekend! Have fun and be safe!

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I woke on Saturday morning to sunlight pouring through the bedroom windows and was reminded of Susan's sweet post* from last week about gratitude. Cliched as it sounds, it made me realise how important the small things are. Constant sunshine and blue skies; the almond breakfast smoothie Bill made me so I didn't go to the studio on an empty stomach; freedom; and the artwork of my late Grandfather scattered around our home, serving as a constant reminder of where I come from. I hope you all had wonderful weekends too.
*I cannot get the link for Susan's exact post to work for some reason so the link above takes you to the top of her page for last week. Just scroll down to see the post 'Gratitude' from 24th May.

PS We're going to see Moonrise Kingdom tonight - did anyone catch it at the weekend? SO excited.

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Recently it was our third wedding anniversary which we celebrated with a short mid-week trip to Southwold, a beautiful little town on the Suffolk coast. It was so peaceful there. Our room was large but cosy with a small balcony over looking the market square, where early in the morning we woke to noisy market traders. They sold mainly plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables which provided a colourful backdrop as we sipped our morning coffee overlooking the square. The sunlight streamed through the old sash windows warming our skin and making us squint but still we looked on to enjoy all the early morning commerce. An extended but delicious breakfast meant we hurridly packed our things followed by a rather unenthusiastic check out of the hotel. We thanked the kind staff for making us feel so welcome and for catering for my somewhat inconvenient dietary requirements and packed up the car. Leaving the car parked we decided to walk to enjoy the last few hours of our break. Despite the sun the air was chilled, forcing us to wrap up warm and enjoy plenty of good food. Again. Our walk along the pier was brisk and misty but we discovered the amusements with some great neon signage which kept me happy and a Star Trek penny game, which kept him happy! I suppose we didn't really do much, which for us was perfect. We walked, ate, enjoyed eachother's company, wished the sea was warm enough for a swim & laughed. A lot. Happy three years, Bill!
PS more photos on my Flickr Page...