Ode to breakfast and the newspaper...
Once, oh it must be pushing 20 years ago now, I decided to take a bike ride along the rocky coast leading to Short Sands Beach in York, Maine.
I had recently moved to a rental property by the Nubble Lighthouse and wanted to find a spot where I could regularly enjoy coffee, a weekend breakfast and the Sunday morning paper.
I was new to York, but not to the Seacoast area, having worked as the Lifestyles Editor at the Portsmouth Herald in New Hampshire for a few years.
The coastal communities in Southern Maine and New Hampshire have much in common with Cape Ann, from artistic riches to the onslaught of summer tourists. So I wasn't surprised to find myself in line when I chose a tiny breakfast nook in the heart of York Village.
I waited my turn and was quickly seated. A busy waitress took my order and poured coffee. I unfolded the paper as warm, slanted rays of sun leaked through the door and past my booth.
This was good. Coffee. Eggs and toast. And a chance to stop and relax. Or not.
I couldn't have been seated more than 20 minutes when my waitress told me, "I'm sorry, but you can't read the newspaper."
I wasn't even halfway through my meal, but apparently management had deemed all that reading to be slowing me down.
I tell this story not to fill a column (as I did back then) with all the reasons why asking a patron not to read the paper over breakfast violates an American tradition.
Rather, I tell it because in editing stories about the four breakfast spots included in this issue's Dining Out feature, I was pleased to see the tradition is alive and well.
These breakfast spots, and many others like them, have struck upon a formula for promoting camaraderie, creating atmospheres that give people permission to slow down, while still somehow turning over tables.
"I come here for a little therapy of sorts," says Phyllis Starr of the Coffee Shop in Rockport.
"Most of the recipes are my mother's," says David Tucker, owner of Tucker's Farm Family Diner. "We wanted to create a diner with a laid-back country style." Sure, it's off season now. And I know in the summer these people, too, struggle with managing crowds.
But I'm also willing to bet they trust their regulars to respect valued visitors by reading the paper just a little bit faster, and maybe even leaving it behind for the next person to enjoy.
Tracey Rauh Solomon,
Editor-in-Chief
Cape Ann Magazine