Breakfast with The Boys

At Twin Lakes Village a lot of the TLV Men's Club members participate in the daily "The Boys" golf game.

It's a tremendous way to enjoy the real enjoyment of the sport - camaraderie. Win or lose, these four-hour rounds every morning are almost always memorable experiences as you can recall later in the day a moment of laughter, a joke or a friend's reaction of a good (or most of the time a bad) shot.

But, that's summer at Twin Lakes where for most residents golf is a way to spend your retirement days. Winter is a different story.

For us who chose to remain in North Idaho, the winter can get a little long, especially if there are days on end with no snow to plow. Snow in Twin Lakes is a reality of living in this beautiful community. If Coeur d'Alene gets 4 inches of snow, double it for Twin Lakes.

This winter, however, was pretty low on the snowfall. Without the daily chore of snow throwing, things were pretty dull around the Village.

In January, five of The Boys decided to go to breakfast on Saturday morning during the winter.

And, to spice things up, every week a different member had to drive, select the restaurant, and pay the bill. It became a great mystery, trying to solve where we would be eating on next Saturday morning.

Now, you might say it doesn't take much to please a senior or, we have too much time on our hands. And, you could be right. At our age (the late 60s to 80) there are no kids to get to school, no 8 to 5 jobs, and (thank God) no arguments with a spouse over money. For my friends and I, we always seek ways to stay busy.

Take away our capability to play golf with The Boys and you end up with some stir-crazy guys in the winter.

Anyway, for three months we have been going on these Saturday outings, and each week dined in a different restaurant.

And, here's a report on the area restaurants, their breakfasts and customer service.

Don Hilling selected a nice little place to have a good breakfast - Annie's Country Kitchen in Spirit Lake. It is clean, the food is reasonable and, most important, the waitresses are quite efficient.

Darrel Albert took us to the "new" Elmer's and we found the food great as usual. It was a little disheartening not to see the place full, with a waiting line, but if anyone can get the customers to the new location it is probably Elmer's.

Shari's was a real surprise - in a good way. Don Martindale picked this one and said it was one of his favorites. We talk about it often as we go over the various restaurants in our verbal reviews. Again, the waitresses here are efficient and friendly. It was enjoyable to see how they assisted one another when the place got packed.

Richard Beach is our most "experienced" breakfast diner. He ventures out to breakfast just about every morning, so we were wondering where we would end up when it was his turn to drive. We found ourselves at the Broken Egg. All of us had driven past it hundreds of times, but Richard was the only one who had eaten there. It was a fine breakfast. They seemed to have lots of regulars on hand, but I believe we got the same treatment as their regulars, except the two sitting at the counter.

I took The Boys to Java on Sherman. If you haven't tried their Bowl of Soul, make it a point to do so. This great coffee shop, voted Coeur d'Alene's best for seven straight years, is an icon. Java on Sherman will move to a new location four blocks up the street, next to The White House. They promise the same Java favorites, and are adding some new surprises at the new location.

Don Hilling took us to Susie's Home Kitchen in Coeur d'Alene. This time he struck out. Well, let's just say it was not one of our favorites. I ordered huevos rancheros. Terrible. I should have known better - ordering huevos rancheros in a restaurant called Susie's. They've got a long way to go if their goal is to bring the flavor of the Southwest to North Idaho.

Don Martindale found a little restaurant in Post Falls, called the Corner Restaurant. It was packed, and the place was filled with families. Biscuits and gravy was outstanding.

My second time around we went to Denny's in Post Falls. I decided that we should go there, just to compare it with the locally owned restaurants. As usual, Denny's had few vacant booths, and the waitresses were well trained and capable of handling lots of customers. Denny's has a good way of not making you feel rushed, and at the same time getting you to pay the bill and not linger. Not much change in the breakfast over the years - except the price for a grand slam!

Darrel chose Rustler's Roost recently. This longtime restaurant has been at various locations since the 1980s or so. Now in Hayden, it still attracts a good clientele to keep it full during the breakfast hours.

Richard also took us to another famous breakfast hangout - the Blue Plate in Hayden. Glad we got there when we did. We got the last table, and when we left at least a dozen were standing, waiting for a place to sit. This place is well worth the effort. Reasonable prices for great food and service.

At our first Saturday outing we went to the Country Nook in Rathdrum. Nothing real special about the place or the food, but it is still the best place to have breakfast in the Rathdrum area.

With golf season fast approaching, The Boys breakfast club will take a break, probably returning next fall when the snows arrive and close the golf course.

Looking back on the winter we all gave the breakfast trips an "A."

It was kind of like a game of golf at Twin Lakes. Even on a bad golf day, you just can't beat spending time, socializing with friends. Our restaurant outings proved just as memorable.

One little bit of advice: If you are planning to have breakfast at any of these establishments, get there early. We arrived around 9 a.m., but by 10 most were packed.