Down the Road

Photographs and stories by Jim Grey

single frame: Cup and carafe

Jim Grey
18 comments on single frame: Cup and carafe
1 minute
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Coffee out

Cup and carafe
Pentax ME, 50mm f/1.4 SMC Pentax-M
Agfa APX 100 (expired 7/1998)
2018

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day, and I love to take it in a restaurant.

When I was in my early 20s I sometimes stopped at a cheerful little cafe downtown on my way to work. It was on 6th St.; I think it was called Boo’s. I always sat at the counter, leaving the few tables to parties of more than one.

Frequently the sheriff ate his breakfast next to me. Such is life in a town the size of Terre Haute. It was his habit to sit at the second stool from the end, and I soon learned to leave it vacant for him. We never spoke, but we always greeted each other by turning our heads toward each other and tilting them back a little.

My eggs, bacon, toast, and coffee set me back only about $3.50, as I recall. Adjusted for inflation, that’s not much more than $6 today. Since moving to Indianapolis I’ve always wished to find a place where I can buy breakfast so inexpensively. The day I drank this carafe of coffee, in a cafe up in Carmel, it and my little egg frittata set me back $13.

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Comments

18 responses to “single frame: Cup and carafe”

  1. J P Cavanaugh Avatar
    J P Cavanaugh

    I love places like that too. There is a little place near me called Just Judy’s. There is no counter, just tables. It is in the strip center at 62nd & Binford. Good basic breakfast food that would probably hit the price range you like, something almost impossible to do anywhere else around here. I have not been in awhile and need to go back.

    Reply
    1. Joshua Fast Avatar
      Joshua Fast

      My wife’s grandparents eat there almost every morning and we’ve been there several times with them. The price and service are amazing.

      Reply
    2. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Nice to know it exists! Now that I live in Zionsville I don’t get over that way much anymore.

      Reply
  2. Nancy Stewart Avatar
    Nancy Stewart

    Sounds like Archie’s by us. Small neighborhood restaurant, good food, good prices, breakfast all day and open 24 Hours. My favorite meal of the day also. I love a big breakfast and then I don’t eat much the rest of the day.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      My stomach clock has me on a tight schedule of three meals a day. I’m trying to learn to make breakfast the biggest of them and dinner the smallest!

      Reply
  3. Joshua Fast Avatar
    Joshua Fast

    I know you are in fishers a lot. Try Sunrise cafe @ 116 & Cumberland in the same strip as Kroger. My wife and I eat there about twice a month. Breakfast is cheap, coffee is good and the service is friendly.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Thanks for the tip! I’ve gassed up at the BP on that corner but never noticed the restaurant in the plaza behind.

      Reply
  4. DougD Avatar
    DougD

    I’m not much for breakfast out around home, but on a motorcycle trip there’s nothing like finding a little place with a row of pickups out front to warm your fingers on a real ceramic cup. :)

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I usually fry an egg for breakfast at home myself. Cheapskate don’t you know.

      Reply
  5. M.B. Henry Avatar
    M.B. Henry

    Seems those little diners are harder and harder to find :(

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Maybe they passed away with the 1990s! That was 20 years ago now, after all.

      Reply
      1. M.B. Henry Avatar
        M.B. Henry

        Shhhh…. no it wasn’t. It was yesterday. :)

        Reply
  6. Marcus Avatar
    Marcus

    Beautiful photo. I like the softness and simplicity. It’s like something the Pictorialists might have done in Camera Work.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      Thank you! I didn’t know I was going to get this look when I made the shot but I sure was pleased when this is how it turned out.

      Reply
  7. David Lacy Avatar
    David Lacy

    Frying an egg at home is not “cheapskate,” just good sense. It’s nice to breakfast in a cafe, but you touched on the problem: $13 is a bit excessive. Well, it was Hamilton County, I see.

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      You are absolutely right. It’s why, even though I love to breakfast in a cafe, I do it so seldom. And when I fry my egg at home I don’t have to shave first.

      Reply
  8. Andy Umbo Avatar
    Andy Umbo

    No offense, but this is something all the “x-pats” living in Indianapolis talk about all the time: “Where’s my $7.00 breakfast?” In fact, we were just talking about it yesterday at the cigar shop. I like to say that Indy has weird overpriced meals and dining experiences, in many cases, as much as in Chicago, but certainly more than Milwaukee; but yesterday, even someone from Chicago was saying the Indianapolis $13.00 dollar breakfast was about 4 bucks more than he was used to spending in his neighborhood in Chi! Sad…I quit going to the place I was going where 2 eggs, hash browns, toast and a few strips of bacon was costing me almost $14.00, with a tip, let’s call it $17.00. That’s a 7 buck breakfast in Milwaukee. I don’t think people here understand, either, that regardless of service, when the senseless overcharging goes up, the tip-o-meter goes down; just to keep the total bill lower than a mob-funded street loan!

    Reply
    1. Jim Grey Avatar
      Jim Grey

      I think the key is that there aren’t really neighborhoods in Indy like you find in Chi or Mil. So what happened here is that everything is chains, even if small ones. And chains have overhead neighborhood places don’t.

      A minor correction: some neighborhoods are (re?)emerging, mostly Downtown. But they’re hip and gentrified, and even the non-chain places going in do $14 breakfasts because the market will bear it.

      Reply

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