Daytime Dining
You know a place has better-than-average food when you see a lot of people dining there who look like they know their ways around a kitchen. You can look at them and imagine scooting up close to their tables and enjoying some fine home cooking.
And that's the sort of folks you see at Surfside Jenny's during breakfast and lunch hours.
You can get biscuits and gravy, eggs, grits, home fries and chipped beef over toast. They might be having a special like a three-egg omelet with ham, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and cheese for $5.50, or half a cantaloupe for $1.75. Pancakes are light and fluffy, and can come filled with fresh fruit. The link Hillshire Farm sausage is flavorful and fresh-tasting.
If you aren't in the mood for breakfast food, there are also burgers and a variety of sandwiches, and their fried green tomatoes come highly recommended. Coffee is served in extra-large mugs, and table condiments include jelly, syrup, ketchup, sugar, salt, pepper and liquid non-dairy creamer. Instead of butter, "Country Premium 52 percent whipped spread" came with the pancakes.
The atmosphere is homey with a country décor featuring sunflowers, oak wood and knickknacks like a stoneware jug collection. A single television sitting on a table was tuned to Headline News. Outside there's a wraparound porch mostly facing Glenns Bay Road.
Surfside Jenny's is at 1013 Glenns Bay Road. It's open 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the number is 238-5366.
Updated concept
Take a right out of Surfside Jenny's parking lot, and another quick right onto U.S. 17 Business and travel about three miles to Reha's Beach Café, which is in The Oasis Shopping Center in Garden City. It just opened a few weeks ago, and owner Bryan Stoetzer has updated the breakfast/lunch diner concept.
The décor is brighter and lighter than Surfside Jenny's. No one could accuse Reha's of having a speck of down-home country atmosphere; this is more beachified with a surfing/tiki hut/bistro décor.
And while the menu's claim to fame is many pie varieties and a bottomless 50-cent cup of coffee, which is rather down-home, the rest of the menu could be described as upscale comfort food. Even the table condiments are posh with real half-and-half and genuine butter.
That doesn't mean you can't find classic pancakes, eggs and bacon at Reha's, because they're all about that. But you can also get Polish kielbasa, or a plate-size waffle dusted with powdered sugar.
Lunch choices include classic burgers and subs, but other selections include half a gourmet sandwich on marbled rye with a cup of lobster bisque (or whatever the soup of the day is), or an Asiago Grilled Cheese with jus to dip it in.
You can check it out for yourself from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The number is 651-0811.
