The Best Breakfast Places in America

The lines are long, and the service is perpetually overwhelmed, but the Waysider offers a subtle red-eye gravy and the most straight-up cheese grits in the free world.

1512 Greensboro Avenue; 205-345-8239

The corned-beef hash comes out perfectly round and at least as good. Also, the homemade strawberry preserves for the biscuits come in a squeeze bottle. Somehow, it works.

805 Donaghey Avenue; 501-327-5447, stobys.com

I always get the perfect seat and don't have to ask twice for coffee. I don't know if it was deliberate on their part, but the community table in the open kitchen makes good on its promise by seating 11, so it can't be all twosomes. The chef is Amaryll Schwertner, who studied neuroscience before turning to cooking. She makes the classics, but she proves that breakfast isn't routine with preparations that sound fancy but are worshipful of the flavors of breakfast: hot beignets with yogurt and rosemary-scented raspberry sauce; ricotta with coffee-poached dates, pistachios, and sunflower honey; and poached eggs with Dungeness crab, sesame oil, and Japanese sea salt. — Francine Maroukian

1 Ferry Building Marketplace; 415-399-1155, bouletteslarder.com

*After breakfast on a Saturday, you're only a few steps away from one of the biggest farmer's markets in California. Find Blue Bottle Coffee — they'll take a few long minutes to craft your cup, but it will change the way you think about coffee.

Walk up to O'Groats early on a weekend morning and there is a sure sign that the place is good: By 7:15, they have an urn of coffee and a cooler of water set up on the sidewalk to sate the crowds that will soon line up for breakfast.

10516 Pico Boulevard; 310-204-0692, ogroatsrestaurant.com

We couldn't figure out what LewMarNel meant, but we're thinking Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and something else. If Bonnie is working, ask her what to eat. If not, get the pancakes.

901 Park Avenue; 530-542-3468

Park your bike by the berms of sand blown from Hollywood Beach down the street. Sit at the counter — always the counter — among the regulars from the Navy base. Observe the patriotic murals and the collection of American flags, five of which have flown over Iraq. Then order one of the bazooka-sized breakfast burritos, or the French toast with cool strawberries, or the huevos rancheros with their soft chunks of tomatoes and jalapeños. Ask for the home fries, the thick ones grilled all morning in paprika, garlic salt, Parmesan cheese, and probably some other stuff. On summer Sundays, sing along as Brim, the owner, leads the whole packed Hut in a chorus of "God Bless America." It won't seem weird at all. — Mattew Belloni

117 Los Altos Drive; 805-985-9151

Larry King had quintuple-bypass surgery more than 20 years ago, and that makes a man diet-conscious. His usual breakfast, on page eight of the menu at Nate 'n Al, is the Larry King Matzo Brei. It's fried matzo with egg whites using very little oil. Just don't order it the way Larry does — burnt. "I was raised on well-done," King says. "I like steak well-done. I like fish well-done. I like my toast burnt. I was eating in a French restaurant in New York once. I ordered a cheese omelet. I never order eggs. I hate eggs. So I said, 'I want it burnt. A lot of cheese, and burn it.' The chef came out holding up the slip with burnt cheese omelet written on it and said, 'Who ordered this?' I raised my hand. He said, 'You! Leave!' " Nate 'n Al's will serve it the way you like. Even burnt. — Cal Fussman

414 North Beverly Drive; 310-274-0101, natenal.com

The waitresses call the regulars by name, guys like Vic and Lou, as in "No lotto ticket today, Lou?" They come for the country-fried steak, smothered in sausage gravy and so tender you can cut it with your fork.

1100 South Santa Fe Drive; 303-733-0795

A few years back, a group of locals rallied to save the Quaker's famous sign when it was threatened by zoning laws for being too big. They did it because the sign represents the simple magnificence of the place — the hash and eggs, the pancakes, the toast, all peerless for miles. They were fighting for their breakfast. And they won.

319 Park Road; 860-232-5523

Across from Oakland Cemetery, where Margaret Mitchell is buried, tatted-up chef Ria Pell (the one on her neck says HATE) plays around with Southern classics while respecting the basics. Worth the small-parking-lot hassles and long wait.

421 Memorial Drive SE; 404-521-3737, riasbluebird.com

CLICK HERE for the fish and grits recipe from Ria's Bluebird

The breakfast burrito is open to interpretation, which is both its genius and its potential downfall. Using the kitchen-sink approach, anything that can be jammed into a tortilla along with eggs — rice, bacon, beans, onions, sausage, sour cream, enough cheese to pave a road — is considered a fine addition. But as the cooks at Mana Foods demonstrate each morning, the key to perfection is restraint. Mana's contains only organic scrambled eggs accented with just enough cheddar to let you know it's there, small potato chunks sautéed in butter, and a sprinkle of diced green pepper. — Susan Casey

49 Baldwin Avenue; 808-579-8078, manafoodsmaui.com

The tender corned beef, cooked on the premises by a loving Irish chef, is served best as hash, beneath two fried eggs and a frothy hollandaise, alongside the local favorite, the inexplicable, unbeatable Irish mimosa, a three-layered glass of orange juice, champagne, and Guinness.

412 East Sixth Street; 812-334-3997, runciblespoonrestaurant.com

The original burned down, but the Inn lives on through second-generation owner and professional clown Dave Panther. Dishes like the Hawkeye Hog (eggs, sausage, hash browns, cheese, gravy) exhibit the kind of nasty glory that hones the famous midwestern physique. — Jennifer Wilson

214 North Linn Street; 319-337-5512, hamburginn.com

If you know the real Chicago, you know Manny's Coffee Shop and Deli. You knew it when Jefferson Street and Roosevelt Road were gritty stretches of schmatte shops and dress boutiques southwest of the Loop. Now, if you really know Chicago, you knew Manny's back when it was Sunny's, before the Raskin family bought the joint in 1942 and figured they'd save money buying just two letters instead of a whole new sign. If not, no matter. It's the same as ever, that certain kind of cafeteria-style Jewish deli that will never go out of (or into) style. Fluorescent lights and Formica tables. Cops, tradesmen, and local pols. Plastic trays and blistering-hot coffee. And, of course, great steaming piles of scrambled eggs and potato pancakes. — Ted Allen

1141 South Jefferson Street; 312-939-2855, c

*The golden-fried potato pancakes are $65 for two dozen at tastesofchicago.com

Let me say one thing: bacon pancakes. Let me say another: potato pancakes with both applesauce and sour cream on the side. Let me say one more: whipping cream for your coffee. You know this place. You saw it in Ordinary People. It's where Timothy Hutton last sees his friend before she kills herself. It's the original pancake house, and it's better than any pancake house since. — David Granger

153 Green Bay Road; 847-251-6000, walkerbrosoph.com

The sides arrive on paper plates and the photos hang crooked, but fresh biscuits appear every few minutes. At Kentucky Derby time, old horseplayers and owners, celebrities and cops, trainers and backside workers all head to Wagner's for ham and eggs, a side of tomatoes, and a glass of malted milk.

3113 South Fourth Street; 502-375-3800

There are no cars on Monhegan, ten miles off the Maine coast. No paved roads. There are 50 or so year-round residents, old houses, and cliffs facing the sea. At the Island Inn, a beautiful rambling old thing on the hill above the ferry dock, the breakfast includes endless buffet trays of scrambled eggs crowded with chunks of buttery lobster which came in on the boats you can see out the window.

207-596-0371, islandinnmonhegan.com

CLICK HERE for the recipe to The Island Inn's lobster scrambled eggs