Sandsquiggles's Blog

Breakfast at the Smoky Toast Café

One thing about rural Maine is the quaint eateries one finds.  Most do not catch a tourist’s eye.  So when one is found, you have to take the chance, stop, and partake of the local cuisine.

In 2011 Marian and I found the Smoky Toast Café.  This place served a breakfast I hadn’t had since my days aboard a US Coast Guard cutter many years ago—corned-beef hash overtopped with fried eggs.  Of course, toast and coffee included.  Smoky Toast Café’s corned-beef hash is homemade and fabulous.  So this morning we decided to have breakfast at the Smoky Toast. 

The Smoky Toast is in Jonesboro, ME, about 2 miles west of the town on Hwy 1.  It’s set back off the road in a forested area.  With the speed limit at 55 mph, it is easy to miss.  So one needs to slow down after passing Hwy 187, the roadway to Jonesport, which connects to Hwy 1 on the left.  The café is on the right about a mile farther. 

Smoky Toast sign on Route 1, Jonesboro, ME

Inside a rectangular building, the café is simply decorated, very clean, has a wood-paneled interior, six tables, a counter with six stools, and the kitchen behind the counter.  Windows facing the forest have birdfeeder just outside them.  Patrons can enjoy watching birds come for seed, but chipmunks and red squirrels provide most of the entertainment.

Two lovely ladies and an assistant run the Smoky Toast.  The ladies cook, waitress, and generally run the place.  All meals are homemade and prepared from scratch, apparently on two skillets and a griddle, though the fare is not simple.  Their day begins around 4:00 AM—the café opens at 5:00 AM—and continues until closing.  The kitchen closes at 1:45 PM.  Open only from Monday to Friday, and only cash and checks are accepted for payment. 

I did not order what I came for this morning, because the breakfast specials were special. With the Maine lobster season at its peak and an abundance of these delicious crustaceans available, breakfast, as well as lunch specials, contained lobster. 

It was difficult to decide between lobster benedict and lobster omelet.  I settled for lobster benedict—a fabulous choice.  The meat of one lobster topped two halves of an English muffin.  Atop each half lay a poached egg and all was covered in lemony-flavored Hollandaise sauce.  My breakfast was a reasonably priced, culinary delight. 

“When you stop in next, I’ll make you corned-lobster hash and eggs,” the woman cooking said, when I paid the bill.  “Corned-beef hash is always on the menu—lobster isn’t,” the other said.

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 ©  Copyright, Richard Modlin 2012