Early Bird Diner Turns 3

When the owners of got the keys to what had for 25 years been an Alex's Restaurant three years ago, it was from the crew that just finished the final shift.

"They were here cooking until the day we took over," General Manager Daniel Infinger said. "I grew up coming to this place for 25 years, it's kind of ironic I end up working here."

The Early Bird has built a loyal customer base over the three years it's been open. Most of a group of about 50-60 daily diners are on a first name basis with all the staff.

"They come in every day, some of them twice a day," Infinger said.

When chefs and owners Dexter Haigler and Nicole Morris decided to open in a former 24-hour diner they wanted to stick with the low key, low cost atmosphere. The menu is full of standard diner fare, nearly all of it tweaked just a little.

"All of our recipies are taken from our grandmothers and mothers, but we put a twist on them," Infinger said.

The fried chicken comes with mushroom sage gravy or lavendar honey, the fried pork chop comes with roasted red pepper jelly, a breakfast item called "the mess" is a scramble of potatoes, curried vegetables, eggs and avacado slices.

All of the kitchen staff at Early Bird come from a fine dining background, and Infinger said they still put just as much care into the food they make at Early Bird as they did for posh downtown restaurants.

The quality of the food is what drew Food Network's Guy Fieri and the crew of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives recently. The show filmed at the diner over the course of four days for about 30 hours, Infinger said.

"It was a huge process to get Food Network in here," he said.

Fieri sampled the Early Bird's chicken and waffles and the fride pork chop. A lot of the time filming was spent on preping the meals. Infinger and the chefs also spent a lot of time on the phone with producers before the crew arrived going over every ingredient in detail.

The show has not sceduled an air date for the episode featuring Early Bird, but the network has said it will likely air sometime in the February to March time frame, Infinger said.

With a staff of about 18, Infinger said the restaurant is trying to prepare for an increase in business following the episode, which should air around the time of the Charleston Food and Wine Festival. He said he has heard from many restaurants featured on TV shows that they weren't prepared for the increased business after the show was on.

"It's kind of weird that so many people base where they go to eat on something they've seen on TV," he said. "But it would be cool for some of those people to try something a little off the beaten path, a little different from everything else that week."

The diner has also become a place to see a wide variety of contemporary art work being produced by young Charleston artists. Co-owner Morris was an art student in college and wanted to pack the walls with as much art work as would fit. Many of the staff are artists and musicians in their own right and are friends with even more people in the local art scene, so there are always plenty of pieces waiting to go up on the walls.

"Some of the artists make so much money from [selling their work] here, that a few of them have had to fill out W-4 forms," Infinger said.