It's the Breakfast Club at "What's Cookin'"

What's Cookin' on Main Street is a local joint that draws a crowd of regulars every day. People who breakfast at the same table, order without the need of a menu, and know the servers by their first names. 

What's Cookin' is that neighborhood hub that serves up just about everything, but it's breakfast that draws a crowd of regulars every day.

While living in Atlanta, fellow Jersey expatriates routinely opined about the Garden State breakfast of taylor ham and cheese on a roll, musing about it with such longing to almost turn it into an northeastern urban myth to our new southeastern friends.

Sounds simple enough, but we here in Bergen County know that it takes skill to make that kind of breakfast sandwich. And a grill that hasn't been turned off or well-cleaned since 1968. What's Cookin' knows how to dish that dish up with perfection--the grease and melted cheese perfectly balanced to soak into the roll. Unless you've been exiled from Jersey for a significant amount of time, you can't understand the weight of meaning that the "taylor ham and cheese on a roll breakfast" has on an expatriot Jerseyan's soul.  

If you're more of a "platter" person, What's Cookin' offers eggs anyway you like them prepared, pancakes and French Toast. And can we please talk omelettes? Western, Greek, Country, bacon, ham...okay, put your cholesterol on a leash and breathe into the paper bag. 

Side orders include bacon, ham, potatoes, hash and so much more. So. Much. More.

The best part? All breakfasts are under $6. 

And since breakfast is our theme, after you dine at What's Cookin', stop by the New Milford Library and pick up the quintessential 'breakfast' movie, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Norman Mailer called Truman Capote's short story, Breakfast At Tiffany's, one of the most perfect stories ever written, and we have to agree. And the movie? We consider the movie to be one of the most perfect ever, too. 

Why? Two words. Audrey. Hepburn. Never was there a more chic numbers runner in the history of numbers running than Hepburn in her iconic role as Holly Golightly. This movie gave birth to the "little black dress" and resonates today as women young and old don pearls, dark shades and heels to go stare into the 5th Avenue window of Tiffany's.  

Holly Golightly is the everywoman who has dreamed of losing herself into the glamour and anonimity of New York City, even if beneath that glamour there is the grittiness of a harsh reality.

There is a boozy party scene that takes place in Holly's tiny NYC apartment that this editor unintentionally replicated in her tiny apartment in 1995, complete with the NYC police joining in on the fun. Thankfully, there is no movie about that, but I think I still have the hangover.

If you have never seen Breakfast at Tiffany's, it is required summer screening. This is a weekend stay-in-your-pajamas flick and a movie that once seen, will never, ever, leave you.

Pearls and martini suggested, but not required, while viewing.