A breakfast bullseye

Jim and Nancy do not disclose the fact that they will review a restaurant before they attend, ensuring their reviews are unbiased and uninfluenced by their position with the Sun Day.

January is such a wonderful month. You wake up, open your blinds, and you think you are looking at an old black and white television screen. This is punctuated by fits of snow, freezing rain, and dense fog all in the same day. So far, 2023 isn’t looking very “bright.”

There is not much to do this time of year. We put away all of our outside Christmas decorations. Why does it take us four long hardworking days to set them up, and only four measly hours to rip them down, throw them in a garbage bag, and place them in the forgotten recesses of our garage. Next we have to de-trim the Christmas tree and try and stuff it back into the original box it came in. That alone took half a day.

After all of this post-holiday festivities, Jim was getting cranky. At any moment I expected him to slam his bald head through the door and say, “Here’s Jimmy”! To avoid having to find a contractor to fix the door, I suggested we get out of the house and go for breakfast.

Nancy was Googling “breakfast locations near me” and several possibilities came up. There is a new “toast” restaurant in Algonquin that looked interesting until we saw the prices. We didn’t feel like spending $17.49 for corn beef hash and eggs, or $11.24 for two pieces of French toast topped with “organic Indonesian cinnamon sugar,” really??? I realize that all chickens are now laying solid gold eggs, but we are asking ourselves why are the prices so high? Did they chickens form a union? They better be careful because chicken is rapidly becoming cheaper than eggs.

Since the new “toast” restaurant is out of the question, we decided to try a local eatery which we have all passed by but never thought of for breakfast. So we bundled up, de-iced the Mini-Mobile, and headed off to Sammy’s Bar and Grill in Huntley.

The restaurant is a friendly neighborhood bar with a lot of regular customers, even for breakfast. One thing we have never seen before were several coin operated dart game machines. There are about a dozen tables scattered throughout. They also have a Karaoke Night on Tuesday, and a fish fry on Friday. Let’s not forget about their slot machines!

Now on to breakfast. Nancy had a taste for something different, so she ordered the Crepes (3) with strawberries ($8.95). She also added a side of bacon (3 slices) for $3.50. To her surprise, they made the bacon crispy just the way she likes it, without even asking. Unfortunately, the crepes were just okay. They tasted like pancake mix that was thinned out and sweetened with some sugar. A bit too sweet for her taste.

Jim, in keeping with his New Year’s resolution to eat healthy, NOT, ordered the Burger Benedict ($10.95). This was an open-faced English muffin topped with a half-pound ground beef patty, (2) poached eggs all smothered in sausage gravy and served with hash browns. The eggs were poached perfectly and he ate the whole thing!!! This is a keeper and a steal for the money. Another one of his resolutions bites the dust…

For a non-pretentious, good tasting, reasonably priced breakfast in a friendly atmosphere, give Sammy’s a try. You just might hit a bullseye on the dart game.

FYI: This restaurant is handicap accessible.

The price that hits the mark, $30.67, not spending twice as much, priceless…

Have comments or restaurant suggestions for the Dining Duo? Send them an email at thediningduo@gmail.com.

---

---