You’ve met our Lusby neighbor and restaurant explorer, Eric Zabiegalski, several times. Eric and I got together again for breakfast one morning and, after consulting Paul of St. Mary’s, settled on Helen’s Cafe.
Helen’s is at 29890 Three Notch Road in the original building of the sprawling farmer’s market and auction in Charlotte Hall. It’s bit of a hike from Lusby to Charlotte Hall, so I had a chance to learn of Eric’s recent trip to Buenos Aires. It seems that a major South American business owner had not only read Eric’s book, The Rise of the Ambidextrous Corporation, he’d also implemented the principles in his company. The result was so successful — can you imagine anyone having both Coca Cola and Pepsi as clients? — that he flew Eric down to Buenos Aires to speak at a conference of his leading employees and his clients, and generally to wine and dine Eric.
At length Eric and I arrived at Helen’s Cafe, a very different venue from the parrillas and steakhouses of Argentina, I’m sure, but delightful in its own way.
We were shown to a table and given coffee and menus. The latter offered a wide array of tempting breakfast choices, but beats there the heart of a man who could resist the “Farmer’s Feast”? It’s “a hearty sampler of meats with bacon, sausage, scrapple, pit ham, and 3 eggs any style, home fries or grits, & toast.” ($14.95)
I chose the Farmer’s Feast with home fries,
while Eric went with the grits.
I have no idea why that photo is smaller.
Our server approved of our order.
The eggs, as you can see, were cooked over easy as ordered, with perfectly runny yolks. The home fries were tasty with a little bit of crust. They reminded me of the home fries at Abell’s Diner, but without that wonderful cooked-in-bacon-grease flavor. Eric was very pleased with his grits, and let me have a taste. These were real grits, and well buttered, as you may have noticed. The toast was warm and had been buttered, although without the glorious excess of Linda’s Cafe.
The pit ham had a little smoke, and I certainly got a large piece. The sausage was meaty, thick, and well seasoned. I do prefer sausage patties over links, mainly because of the greater opportunity for caramelization and crispness, but this was about as good a link as I can recall anywhere. The real stars of the meal, though, were the bacon and the scrapple. Both strips of bacon were crisped and graced with a smoky flavor. This is good bacon. The scrapple was a generous slice — most of it’s hidden under the bread — with a fine crust, a pleasant center, and very good seasoning. We both enjoyed the bacon and scrapple tremendously.
It was a fine meal. Alas, the whole multi-acre market area supposedly has been sold to developers. Except for the original building, the area consists of endless crumbling frame barracks that are far beyond the fixer-upper stage. The complex is not long for this world, assuming that interest rates settle back down, and will be replaced by something neater, more attractive, and less interesting. I do hope they spare the original building and Helen’s. And I hope that you’ll go there. You don’t need to get the full Farmer’s Feast, but make sure you get the bacon and scrapple. You’ll thank me. And you don’t have to, but if you want to pay my way to, say, Paris, Rome, New Orleans, or Lexington (either NC or TX), I’ll be happy to go.
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