One New York Life

I love breakfast. It’s the only meal I consistently go out for. It’s the only meal I’ll go out by myself for. So, since I was in Mechanicville last week I decided to go to the newest breakfast location in my town. So, bear with me, this is a new format that may sink or swim.

The Ugly Rooster

7 days; 6:00 am – 3:00 pm

Location: When I was a young snob, this building housed a small corner grocery store called Michele’s (pronounced: meh-KEL-lee’s). Michele’s specialty was deli sandwiches on entire loaves of Italian bread. Seriously, go to the grocery store, look at the 1 pound loaf of Italian break, slice that bastard lengthwise, and throw lunchmeat on it. That was the Michele’s Super Sub. They closed when I was in middle school. The story I was told said the owner’s scheme of stealing entire packages of lottery tickets and paying the state with the winning tickets while keeping any profit for himself eventually ended the way you’d expect. In my young snob days surrounded by my scheming Italian family, I have absolutely no problem believing this is exactly what happened. I think there was a flower shop there for a while until it eventually reopened as Penny’s Main Street Cafe which PLR and I visited at least once a weekend until they decided to actively seek out the worst waitstaff in the Capital Region. Now, round three gives us the Ugly Rooster. It features the same hours of Penny’s — 6:00 – 3:00 with no dinner service. Or, actually, Mechanicville is 98% senior citizens so 2:30 might be the dinner rush.

Parking: Street. But there is plenty of parking on Saratoga Avenue and Main Street. One of the benefits of being the only business for three blocks, I guess.

First Impression: The decor is largely the same as it was when it was Penny’s. Gone is the somewhat tacky knick-knack shelves. I don’t recall seeing the somewhat shady pie case either. Sadly, still included are the floor-to-ceiling mirrors on the north wall, which leads me to believe it might second as a strip club during the evenings. What it actually leads me to believe is that there must be some horrible deformities under the mirror because I can’t imagine any other case in which gigantic mirrors are better decor than rustic exposed brick of a 100-year-old building.

Menu: They had a generally good looking breakfast and lunch menu. The breakfast menu featured things like a cinnamon bun french toast, a jalapeno and scrambled egg wrap, and, my eventual selection, the Benedict omelet — a krab and asparagus omelet topped with Hollandaise. Even though I’ll probably never actually have lunch there (I go to places on weekends at noon and have eggs. It’s how I roll), I checked out the lunch menu. A good assortment of burgers, sandwiches, and tacos. Were I to go there for lunch, I’d probably get tacos. One complaint — with tacos as a lunch options, I would have loved to see a Spanish/Mexican option on the breakfast menu. Maybe a huevos ranchero wrap or something? I guess I could count the jalapeno and egg wrap but that combined with coffee might actually cause the creature from end of Spaceballs to emerge from my belly. Also, I found it odd that they’d feature a dish with Hollandaise but have no actual Eggs Benedict option. I can understand not including the scourge that is Canadian bacon, but you have sausage patties and asparagus. Those are two Benedict dishes that I’ll always order above the Canadian bacon version.

Service: I should get this out of the way early. I have exactly two pet peeves with servers. One: I want to be acknowledged quickly when I sit down — especially at a seat yourself breakfast place when I haven’t had coffee yet. Two: My coffee should never be empty. Ever. Both of these pet peeves were right on the border of being violated, but they were saved at the last instant. The service was good. My waitress did seem a bit frazzled by her table of seven but she was also only running three tables including my table of one. Toward the end, a guy who I’m assuming was the owner came out to ask how everything was and filled my coffee. Well done, sir. Stick save and a beauty.

The Meal: I decided on their “Benedict Omelet” with a side of sausage. The Benedict omelet was an asparagus and krab omelet topped with Hollandaise sauce. I ordered the omelet for two reasons. 1) I love crab and spinach omelets so I was perfectly willing to give krab a try for $6 and 2) Hollandaise. Hollandaise is on the short list of stuff (bacon, puff pastry, Hollandaise) that makes every breakfast meal better. The Hollandaise topping on an omelet doesn’t add as much as I thought it would. I understand its use here: omelets usually get a good amount of saltiness from pig products. Using crab and asparagus removes that natural saltiness so what better way to replace it than with buttery awesome? The omelet itself was perfectly cooked and delicious. Zero complaint about the omelet, but I think if I ordered it again, I might have to commit the cardinal sin of asking for it Hollandaise free. The sausage patties we’re generic sausage patties but good. I’m pretty sure their rye toast was from the large 1-pound rye from Price Chopper which, as someone who made them for four years, I’m perfectly fine with. Choppers in-store breads are money and their rye toasts up in to delicious, crispy goodness that holds up the crispy even when drowned in butter, which these slices happily were.

The Bill: $9.83 for coffee, omelet, home fries, toast, and sausage. Can’t beat that with a sword.

Final Thoughts: Really great first experience. Highly recommended.