Breakfast in Review: The White Palace Grill
By Caitlin Klein in Food on Jan 20, 2011 7:00PM
Canal Street's White Palace Grill gets a lot of publicity. Why? Because it’s open 24 hours a day? Because it has a rich history? Because it was on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives? Or perhaps because it bites its thumb at “foodie-food” like so many of late? From the White Palace Grill website, “If you need a break from "caramelized onions", "infused" sauces and names of food you can't pronounce then come over anytime 24 hours a day 365 days a year, we will be there to serve you comfort food.” Message received.
We went to the White Palace Grill in search of the most basic breakfast: eggs. Give them to us hot, fried hard, and accompanied by their good buddies bacon, sausage, and hashbrowns. That’s what we wanted, and that’s what we got. The breakfast menu boasts an almost staggering array of choices: pecan waffles, biscuits and gravy, French toast, corned beef hash, omelettes, huevos rancheros, and egg sandwiches with all manner of pork (we counted ham, sausage, and bacon). Almost everything ranges from $3 to $10. None of it is fancy, and all of it is fast.
The service is quick and no-fuss. The faux-formica tables are clean and hold the basic condiments to get your breakfast moving: ketchup, salt and pepper, coffee creamer, and sugars. We can imagine nursing weekend hangovers here, or just stopping in for an after-church waffle and cup of coffee. Truth be told, there is nothing extraordinary about the White Palace Grill - it revels in being distinctively indistinctive, and it seems that that’s just the way they like it.
The White Palace Grill is located at 1159 S. Canal Street, where they are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.