Power Breakfast Sandwich

The Nashville Scene article published. Wednesday. The headline: "Sarah's Table: How One Nashville Woman Turned Her Grandmother's Cornbread Into a Neighborhood Institution." The article is three pages. It has photos (by Chloe — credited, photographed, the eleven-year-old food photographer getting her first publication credit in an actual newspaper). The article tells the story: Earline, the farmhouse, the recipe box, the step stool, the Waffle House, the dental school, the pandemic, the sunflower, the napkin, the storefront. The whole story. In print. In a Nashville institution. The story that's been written in weekly chapters for seven years is now written in a newspaper and the newspaper is on tables and the tables are in Nashville and Nashville is reading the story of a woman who made Hamburger Helper at eleven and cornbread at thirty-one and a restaurant at thirty-one and the cornbread was the same at both ages and the woman is different and the difference is everything.

The response was: immediate. The article generated: a line at the restaurant on Thursday that wrapped around the building. A LINE. People waiting to eat my food because they read the story and the story made them hungry. Not hungry for food — hungry for the feeling. The feeling of a grandmother's kitchen. The feeling of a table set for you before you arrived. The feeling that the Nashville Scene called "a homecoming." They're hungry for the homecoming. They read about it and they want it and they're standing in line for it and the line is around the building and every person in the line is a person who read about Earline and the cast iron and the four generations and decided: I need to go there. I need to sit at that counter. I need to taste the cornbread. I need to close my eyes.

Mama read the article. She read it at her kitchen table with coffee and the overhead light. She called me. She said: "They got it right." They got it right. The journalism is Lorraine-approved. The story is accurate. The truth is on the page. They got it right. Three words. Maximum Lorraine. Maximum everything.

I stood behind the counter on Thursday, serving the line, watching people read the article on their phones while waiting for their food, watching them look at the menu and then look at Earline's photo and then look at the skillet and then look at me and the looking is the connection. The story connects us. The food connects us. The table connects us. Sarah's Table: the table that connects. That's the real menu. That's the real business. Not cornbread. Connection. I just gave the connection an address.

Revenue, the week of the article: $6,200. The biggest week ever. The article week. The week the story became public. The week everyone closed their eyes. The week the church was full. Amen.

After the week the article dropped — the line around the building, Mama’s three words, the skillet going non-stop from open to close — I kept thinking about what it means to feed people who are already hungry before they arrive. The Power Breakfast Sandwich is what that week felt like to me: no frills, no apology, just everything you need stacked in one place, ready to go. We served it to people who’d been standing in line before we even unlocked the door, and every one of them ate it like they meant it. That’s the full menu. That’s the church being full. Here’s how we make it.

Prep Time: 5 min | Cook Time: 10 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 1

Ingredients

1 whole grain English muffin, split and toasted
2 large eggs
2 slices Canadian bacon or lean turkey bacon
1 slice sharp cheddar or pepper jack cheese
1/4 avocado, sliced
1 small handful baby spinach
2 slices ripe tomato
1 teaspoon olive oil or cooking spray
Salt and black pepper to taste
Hot sauce, optional

Instructions

Toast the muffin. Split the English muffin and toast until golden and firm. Set aside on a plate.
Cook the bacon. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add the Canadian bacon or turkey bacon and cook 2 minutes per side until lightly browned. Remove and set aside.
Cook the eggs. Add olive oil or cooking spray to the same skillet over medium-low heat. Crack in the eggs and cook to your preference — over easy, over hard, or scrambled. Season with salt and black pepper. Lay the cheese slice over the eggs in the last 30 seconds to melt.
Build the sandwich. On the bottom half of the toasted muffin, layer spinach, tomato slices, and avocado. Top with the bacon, then the cheesy egg. Add hot sauce if using.
Serve immediately. Cap with the top half of the muffin and serve hot. Best eaten standing at a counter, with people you love nearby.

Nutrition (per serving)

Power Breakfast Sandwich — The Full Menu, Served to the Line