What started as a preserves company is now one of LA’s most coveted eateries: Sqirl, a small nook of a restaurant that serves breakfast and lunch made with farm-fresh ingredients. Chef Jessica Koslow is still churning out jams, but this time you can spread it on thick cuts of brioche toast with Sqirl’s house ricotta. If you’re not ordering toast here, you’re probably opting for one of the rice bowls, filled to the brim with seasonal flourishes such as sorrel pesto and radishes, sheep’s-milk and feta cheeses, plus a poached egg and juicy house sausage. There will be a line, but it’s well worth the wait (as will be Sqirl Away, no doubt—Koslow’s upcoming second venue, set to open next door).
Analysts bemoan how many hard-working Americans are forced to lunch deskside, but another unheralded victim of modern workaholism is the big, buttery, old-fashioned breakfast. On-the-go cereal bars and $12 juices may seem de rigueur, but they are not the only games in town. We think it’s time to make more room in your week for a Bloody Mary and eggs Benedict—like, on a Tuesday!—and reclaim the day’s most important—and most delicious—meal. Luckily, the breakfast restaurants of America are well equipped to help. You can get boozy with a brunch in NYC (and boozier at a brunch in LA), get greasy at a gut-busting counter joint in Texas, or go healthy with a mound of fresh fruit at Oahu’s top café. From coast to coast—and beyond—America’s best breakfast restaurants are making a strong case for kicking off your day with a killer meal.