#brunics

Every neighborhood should have a breakfast dinette like Brunic’s, with a counter and maybe 3 tables and where the owner, Dave, works the till as well as the grill and the waitress Marlene, who has been there 20 years, calls you Sweetie. Diane made the mistake of asking if they had soy milk and Marlene said, as kindly as she could, “Oh, sweetie, no...”

Down in Newbold, South Philly, the neighborhood may be gritty, but the local specialty, creamed chipped beef on toast (only served on the weekend), is not. 

Now don’t let appearances fool you. It only looks disgusting. It’s actually quite a tasty blend of white sauce and rehydrated slivers of dried beef served over excessively buttered toast. OK, so it sounds awful, but give it a chance. Think of it as a guilty pleasure - a taste of the south in your mouth. Alright, I’m going to stop now. I’m only making it worse. Just try it.

We also tried that other Pennsylvania staple - scrapple. This regional delicacy was born of the desire to combat wastefulness. It is exactly what it sounds like - scraps of meat, usually pork, but it may include beef, and mostly offal, cooked down into a stew, ground up with other bits of meat and combined with cornmeal for texture. It is cooled, formed into a loaf, then sliced and fried on a griddle and served with eggs and potatoes.

Because it is made from scraps, each version of it is different. Ours tasted a lot like liver, which I’m not totally against on it’s own, but as part of this mystery concoction was unsettling. I’m glad I tried it, because now I’ll never have to have it ever again.

Apart from the area specialties, this diner, like other good neighborhood breakfast spots, offers cheap reliable (mostly fried) foods. While we were sitting at the counter, an endless stream of regulars dropped in for breakfast and lunches to go. Like the Cheers bar, sometimes you like to go where everybody knows your name.