Letter to the Editor: Service Exceptional at Egg Harbor Café

When it comes to restaurants in Sandy Springs, there always seems to be new ones coming and going, and in this economy there have been a lot of them going lately. 

For Mother’s Day, my brother and sister decided to take our parents to one of the new ones - Egg Harbor Café on Roswell Road, in the same shopping center as Caribbean Café and Chipotle, just south of Whole Foods. The location has been home to at least four or five failed restaurants in the past 10 years, but I have a feeling Egg Harbor Café may be exactly what we needed and has hopefully hit on a winning formula.

Egg Harbor owners are obviously doing everything they can to put their best foot forward and have coached their employees on the importance of great service. From the time we entered the café we were welcomed profusely by employees and thanked for choosing to dine there. They seemed genuinely happy to see us even though the place was packed and they were only 30 minutes away from closing time. The attention never lagged from start to finish.

Service was exceptional. Our waitress was very familiar with the menu and offered helpful tips as we ordered, although it was also obvious she was impressed with all of their dishes. As each of us ordered something different she would respond with “Oh I really like that, you’re going to love the potato pancake” or “The Swedish pancakes are really good, I just love them,” and “That’s so good, it’s my favorite.” We believed her, and she was right too.

I tried the so-called Bavarian version of eggs Benedict with poached eggs, pieces of bacon, cheese, and tomatoes over a potato pancake.

I lived in Bavaria for three years and unfortunately never saw anything like this on the menu there but I guess the poached eggs and potato pancakes were sort of Bavarian. In any case, it sure was a great dish no matter what you call it.

My brother Greg of course had to try the dish called “Greg’s omelet” which was essentially a chili and cheese omelet smothered with lots of very good chili. Greg was definitely enthusiastic about his namesake omelet. 

My sister had the breakfast sampler – French toast- eggs and bacon, which at $5.95, was possibly the best deal on the menu.  

My Swedish mom ordered the Swedish pancakes with lingenberries which delighted her and Dad had the “Down Home” which turned out to be a skillet filled with two eggs, home fries, sausage and sausage gravy over biscuits. 

To steal a bad line from the folks at South of the Border in South Carolina, “You never sausage a dish.”  

To a person, everyone in our family thought they had made the best choice and raved about their meals. The café offers an unusually wide selection of dishes with a number of creative variations of standard breakfast dishes on their menu. There is sure to be something on the menu to appeal to even the pickiest of breakfast aficionado.

And on top of their great food choices the most important standard for any breakfast establishment is they have great coffee and they do. And even better, they place thermoses on the table along with their signature pottery mugs so everyone has plenty of hot coffee throughout breakfast.

In short, Egg Harbor is a welcome additional to Sandy Springs. They have great food and service in a welcoming friendly atmosphere. This restaurant is simply an all around great place for breakfast. 

One warning is they are only open for breakfast and lunch from 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., daily. This place is going to be so popular on weekends when the word gets out, it will be hard to find a table.   

I have a feeling this troubled location has finally landed a restaurant with a menu and a concept that will last. Egg Harbor management must also be confident. They bought nice hand painted pottery coffee cups with their name on the cups but also their location – Sandy Springs, Georgia - written on every cup. They clearly plan to make it here in Sandy Springs – and I hope they do.