Adam & Eats: Brothers Cottage Cafe

Editor’s note: Adam Brandt is a graduate from the Cobra Kai School of Culinary Callousness, where he received their highest award, the Red Apron of Merciless Eating. Aside from eating and talking about eating, he makes pots, paintings, prints, books, photographs, and generally, a big mess. He has been the studio assistant at Mudpuppy Pottery for almost nine years and is attending a local university in a desperate attempt to earn a biology degree.

Is anybody else craving breakfast for dinner? I know just the place. But, if you weren’t looking for it, you might not ever see it.

Located on Main Street across from the train station in historic downtown Van Buren is Brothers Cottage Café. This cozy country diner is nestled snuggly between shops on Van Buren’s bustling downtown strip. The parking out front is a little tricky if you don’t know what you’re doing, but you’ll be fine if you park at the train station and walk over to eat.

Now be ready for it, because this place is filled with about as much southern charm as you can pack into two rooms. The walls are covered with everything you can imagine: a giant rug featuring two chickens, whaling implements, clown figurines, Audubon drawings of birds, all atop layers of wood, plaster, brick, and corrugated steel. It is intense. Somehow, the décor manages not to come across as cluttered. It is a delicate ballet of stuff and textures all done perfectly.

But people don’t seek out the Cottage Café for their choice of decorations or their friendly waitstaff. They seek them out for their famous fried foods. I hear the fried chicken is amazing, but that is not what we are after this week. We are hunting breakfast and two of their breakfast specials steal the show.

The first is the Cottage Omelet which consists of three whole eggs, sausage, bacon, ham, cheese, onions, tomatoes, bell pepper, and mushrooms. I can live without the mushrooms, but I have to say that their’s is one helluva great omelet.

Whatever their cook is doing in the kitchen, pray that they don’t stop.

This omelet is everything you want in an egg dish. It is savory, rich, flavorful, and texturally complex. There is nothing worse than a bland, boring omelet and the Cottage Omelet is definitely on the opposite end of that spectrum.

The second dish is, of course, the chicken fried steak breakfast. Really, what could possibly be better than a big hunk of meat that has been breaded, fried, and smothered in gravy first thing in the morning? I can think of a few things, but this a family show, so I’ll tell you when you’re older.

This special comes with a freshly battered and fried steak, two eggs any way you want them, toast or a biscuit and gravy, and either hash browns, grits, or country potatoes. Either the menu is a liar when it states that their gravy is homemade or they have the most skilled gravy maker on the planet, because they can make some of the best imitation packaged gravy I have ever tasted. It is not bad, but I had my heart set on the kind of lumpy tannish peppered gravy that comes from my “Granny’s” kitchen.

I don’t take too many marks off for the gravy when their c.f.s. is so friggin’ amazing. Seriously, it is in the top 3 in all of the River Valley.

If you’ve got a hankering for breakfast at five at night, be sure to give Brothers Cottage Café a try. They are definitely worth it.

Until next week, good eating to you and yours.

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When he’s not beating his eggs, Adam makes time to respond to e-mails that get past his hard-ass spam filter. You can try to reach him at [email protected]

Adam also has this thing called Sandwich Control.