Okay, so let’s get past the fifth grade jokes about “toot n tell” and let me tell you what you’re missin’!  The Toot N Tell is a restaurant in Garner, NC that has the best breakfast you will ever find, if you’re a southerner.  Before I say anymore about the breakfast, let me explain the name.

I’m told that the name came from the fact that when the restaurant began, it had a drive through window (they still do I believe) and people would drive up, “toot” their horn, and “tell” their order. Voila – “Toot n Tell.”

Anyway…I love the Toot n Tell and regret the fact that it is way out of my way to go there.  You pretty much have to know how to get there in order to find it.  It’s off the beaten path, and you can’t get there from here.  And the breakfast is out of this world.  It’s not that other’s couldn’t cook the same things, it’s just that it is somehow better at the Toot n Tell.

Anyway…my breakfast of choice is the two egg special.  Two eggs, over easy, grits with red-eye gravy, toast and fatback.  When I first started going to the Toot n Tell, I believe the special cost 2.80.  It eventually went to $3.20.  I don’t know what it is today (didn’t pay attention when I went yesterday) but I do know my total bill, including coffee, ws $5.35!!!

Okay, so let me explain “red-eye gravy” and “fatback” since I know many of you non-southerners have no idea what I am talking about.  Red-eye gravy is made by cooking country ham and leaving the grease residue in the pan.  Then, the cook pours coffee into the pan which mixes with ham residue and there you have it – red-eye gravy!  And it is sooo good.  Fatback.  Also known as “salt pork” and “streak of lean.”  To me, it’s like bacon on steroids.  It is basically pig fat with a small “streak of lean” meat running through it that is heavily cured in salt and fried like bacon.  It is a heart attack waiting to happen but I would eat it every day if I could.  Most people know fatback more from being used to season green beans.  The Toot N Tell is the only place I know that you can order fatback, which is good, since it is so unhealthy to eat it.

Anyway…I’ll post a couple more pictures below.  Let me know if you want to make a breakfast run to the Toot N Tell!