Keeping it Classic

Jeffrey's Restaurant in Coeur d'Alene is not just a breakfast place, though they have everything you'd expect from a breakfast menu for everyone from early birds to late sleepers.

Wake up to homemade biscuits and bacony gravy ($3.10 half/$4.15 full), French toast ($4.85) or a mushroom omelet ($8.55). At Jeffrey's you can do several variations of an egg, sausage or bacon and fruit or toast for under $5. For hearty eaters, pork chops and eggs ($8.65/$12.10) are sure to fill you up, or try house specialties like a mish-mash of hand-shredded hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, ham, onion and cheese called the Best Breakfast in Town ($9.10).

If that was all Jeffrey's offered, we could probably pencil in a Saturday morning splurge or two. But while your dining companions pour syrup over their gargantuan pancakes with huckleberries, you're crunching curly fries that accompany your juicy burger ($7.40). Additional sandwiches include warm handfuls like the tuna melt ($8.20), open-faced beef or turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy ($8.10) — in case you were going through post-Thanksgiving day withdrawals — and old-fashioned Reuben with sauerkraut and grilled rye ($8.95).

Hot plate specials at this Sherman Avenue diner range from ham steak with grilled pineapple ($7.95) to handcut cod filets in a custom batter ($7.95), all with a choice of sides. The menu rounds out with salads like the crispy chicken ($9.35), and from-scratch desserts like pie or cheesecake ($3.25).

No alcohol, closed on Sunday, plenty of good food that's fresh and fast, served with a smile. If that sounds like classic diner food, that's the intent for owners Jeffrey and Kathy Grossman. This is the second location for the Grossmans, who met more than 30 years ago while working in a restaurant and have operated a similar Jeffrey's location in Lewiston, Idaho, for nearly as long.

Community is important, says Kathy. "It's the locals that sustain us." ♦