The Breakfast State

Our license plates say "The Ocean State," but an old friend from New York was always convinced that Rhode Island was "The Breakfast State." His belief was founded on a seemingly limitless number of breakfast joints in South County/southern R.I. - Dad's and Crazy Burger in Narragansett; Phil's, River's Edge, Camden's ("the bowling alley") and the Bluebird Cafe in Wakefield; diners like the Beacon and Jigger's in East Greenwich, Snoopy's in North Kingstown and The Middle of Nowhere in Exeter. What really sold him was the range of summertime breakfast nooks, from the upscale Olympia Tea Room in Watch Hill to the low-key Jim's Dock in Jerusalem.

Sometimes there's a lot of truth in a throwaway line. Rhode Island gave birth to the diner and the tradition of May breakfasts. Other times the reputation exceeds the reality. There are more active lighthouses in Rhody (14), for instance, than there are traditional working diners (13).

On the plus side, Providence is home to the still-in-progress American Diner Museum and a local initiative to involve at-risk teens in a project to restore and preserve classic trolley car diners. And Oak Lawn Church in Cranston is the birthplace of the May breakfast, first held in 1867, when it was the Old Quaker Meeting House. The event is unique to Rhode Island, sponsored by churches, senior centers, fire departments, granges and other community locales throughout the state from mid-April through the end of May. On May Day, the R.I. Governor invites any Rhode Islander over the age of 100 to a May breakfast at the State House in Providence. People over the age of 60 can go to any number of senior centers in Rhody for what are called Governor's May Breakfasts - only without the governor.

The menu depends on the venue, an eclectic mix that usually includes jonnycakes or johnnycakes. (Drop the "h" if you use Rhode Island-grown stone-ground whitecap flint corn; the "h" is required for johnnycakes made with any other kind of corn. This is no joke. It's law in Rhode Island.) Other breads range from pancakes to French toast, doughnuts to muffins. Meats include ham, sausage or bacon. Eggs are usually served scrambled. Most May breakfasts also offer baked beans and a variety of pies, coffee and juice. Clam cakes were on the original menu at Oak Lawn, where they're still served today. Some Rhode Islanders make a spring ritual of weekly May breakfast-hopping. Two other points in Rhody's favor as "The Breakfast State": 1) Here, breakfast is an any-time-of-day kind of meal. 2) Coffee as a vital liquid is second only in importance to blood.