Connecticut Food Guide: Breakfast & Take-Out

In my last post, I ranked the best burger bars in the Hartford area. This post will address restaurants east of Hartford. After much searching, Casey and I have cultivated a small stable of restaurants that fill certain food niches. This post will highlight breakfast and take-out places.

Track Nine Diner: The Track Nine sits just across the Willington border from Tolland. It serves an expansive breakfast and lunch menu of pancakes, eggs, and every kind of breakfast food that would your cardiologist weep. Casey and I have never eaten there for lunch. When we go to the Track Nine (not as often as in the past), we gorge on pancakes, French toast, and home fries. The we usually skip lunch. The Track Nine is the quintessential breakfast spot, featuring the same regulars, staff, and tricky to navigate parking lot.

Gerry’s Donuts: Gerry’s, located in Ellington, features absurdly delicious and cheap doughnuts. A dozen doughnuts cost five dollars. Gerry’s represents one of those local coffee and doughnut places that proliferated around the Northeast before the rise of Dunkin Donuts. After eating Gerry’s, there is no going back to Dunkin’s processed garbage. Gerry’s opens at 6 A.M. and they only make one batch of doughnuts. So you have to get there early. If you can’t get there by 8 A.M. you will have missed your chance at your favorite doughnuts (chocolate glazed for me). It’s a commitment to go there, but well worth the effort.

Willington Pizza and Willington Pizza Too: This local restaurant and its offshoot (only five minutes from our house) offer a menu of Greek style pizzas, subs, and other pizza restaurant staples. For those unfamiliar with Greek style, this particular type of pizza features a thicker and fluffier crust than New York style and is cooked in a shallow pan. Our favorite dishes at Willington include their white pizza, buffalo chicken pizza, and their spinach and artichoke dip.

Camille’s Pizza: Camille’s, a newly opened pizza restaurant in the Big Y Plaza in Tolland, features a menu of smaller, designer pizzas cooked in a wood fire oven. Since it opened last month, Casey and I have ordered from there once. The prosciutto pizza we ordered was tasty although we had to apply the toppings ourselves. While the prosciutto would dry out in the wood fire oven, having the customer apply the toppings seems a bit odd (it makes me question what I just paid for if I have to assemble it myself). We plan on ordering from there again to try their other offerings.

Dog Lane Café: The Dog Lane, located in the newly opened Storrs Center, serves a wide range of breakfast foods, soups, salads, and sandwiches. They rely on locally sourced ingredients at a reasonable price point. Casey and I have eaten there several times and have found the food filling and delicious. The casual atmosphere suits the area and allows for the diner to eat a relaxing meal or gobble their food down quickly and get back to campus. The owners of Dog Lane also operate the Vanilla Bean Café in Pomfret and 85 Main in Putnam.