in St. Louis (on Hampton).
I agree with BB's point regarding limiting our votes to chains, so I went with IHOP.
If I were including local breakfast joints, here would be a few of my favorites.
Tip Top Meats, Carlsbad, CA (This place is a German market, butcher, and restaurant. The Big John breakfast is off the charts. Three eggs, potatoes, bread, and all of the bacon, sausage, pork, ham, and bratwurst you can eat. All for 6 bucks. It was my dream breakfast when I was on the Atkins diet.
Mickey's Country Kitchen, Walkertown, NC (awesome pork tenderloin and great biscuits.)
In Lynchburg I like The Country Kitchen. It's a super cheap local place where all of the retired guys come for breakfast.
I couldn't decide. I love a ton of them. My favorites: WaHo, Original Pancake House, IHOP, Bob Evans, Shoney's, and Denny's. Others that are not included on the original poll list are the Cracker Barrell and the Omelette Shoppe (similar setup to WaHo and Huddle House, but specializing in omelettes).
I love Walker Brothers pancakes which has a few restaurants in the burbs north of Chicago. Mmmmmmmm!!!!!!
My house.
"Dad, will you make a big breakfast?"
"Of course."
Cheese grits, country ham (and bacon for mrsallenmurray who never acquired a taste for country ham, though I love her anyway), biscuits (made only with Red Band brand flour), eggs over easy (so you can smush them into the grits), high quality blackberry preserves, and cantaloupe.
On days that you are not sure if there is a god, eat that breakfast. YOu still might not be sure, but you'll feel better anyway.
I voted "other" with Bob & Edith's in mind. Great diner.
BDB, however, has described the 2nd (and lesser/expansion) location. The original Bob & Edith's has no outdoor seating, and is much closer to the Marine Barracks on Columbia Pike.
B&E2 doesn't come close in dinerdom to B&E1, the Metro Diner on Lee Highway, or an awesome old diner out in Fairfax, not too far from GMU. There's also a good one up in Rockville, Md. that was worth the hike. (I love old Diners, in case you couldn't tell.)
Used to live w/in walking distance of this place, never saw the allure... then again, maybe it was hidden by the crowds causing an hour+ wait on weekends.
Waffle House still stands as the best breakfast chain, in my book.
I'm from New Jersey. We didn't have chains, we had diners. Medport Diner in Medford, NJ was where we always went...
The best now is Elmo's Diner near East Campus. Before the baby came along, we ate there pretty much every other weekend. We just brought the 10-week old there last week for her first trip. :-) And not the last.
If I HAD to pick a chain, I'd probably go with CB. Their thick-cut bacon is to die for.
I too voted other. Its a chain but only local to Dallas (maybe other parts of TX too) - Cafe Brazil.
The best place to eat breakfast closed over ten years ago. Akron Drive Restaurant in Winston-Salem near WFU. It was traditionally open 24 hours, so naturally students ate there often. Then it cut its hours, but was still a great place to go on a weekend morning. Smaller than Waffle House, I believe, so you had to wait usually. I could get one egg, grits, two big AWESOME homemade biscuits, coffee, and tip for $3. I cried a little when it closed.
It actually still had brains and eggs listed on the menu.
The Gordog