Brother Juniper's

I normally hate breakfast food--especially restaurant breakfast food: overcooked scrambled eggs, greasy sausage, soggy toast, limp bacon . . . but Brother Juniper's is amazing. Fresh juice, great coffee, whole foods, innovative menu (for Memphis anyway) . . . all for a very fair price. My favorite is the omelet with gyro meat; they also make great biscuits. The only down size is that they are packed on the weekends, so come early and be prepared to wait--it's worth it!

I have eaten here once. Once, I know, should not constitute true love. But it does, at least in terms of eateries. Brother Juniper's is the sort of restaurant that makes me proud to be southern, it is the sort of restaurant that makes me consider moving to Memphis, reincarnating myself as Irene or Loretta or Betty and being a waitress for the rest of my life. I suppose this might be a little misleading - Brother Juniper's is not a truck stop-esque diner, and most of the girls working there looked like college students, and probably went by Jessica or Lauren. Sigh. My loss, I suppose. But regardless of my fusion of fantasy and reality, the food and the atmosphere of Brother Juniper's the sort of "down-home-goodness" one seeks and finds in a mom-and-pop diner and not, say, in an IHOP. It is small and cozy, far from expensive without being suspiciously cheap, and best of all, grits and coffee to die for. Oh, and biscuits to kill for.  A lusty and brief(!) but memorable affair, a breakfast like that.