Tour de Toast: Olivette Diner serves five Benedicts and a slinger

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In this ongoing series, Ann Lemons Pollack investigates brunch options in St. Louis—and an occasional breakfast joint for good measure.

Breakfast is a hard meal to compromise on. When one person wants—or needs—a diner breakfast and the other is itching for a Benedict, what's a soul to do?

We have a solution. Head for the Olivette Diner. Breakfast all day? Yup. Enough parking? Indeed. Zippy cooks? You bet. The standards are handled competently, perfectly cooked crisp shingles of potato shreds, toast buttered with a brush. Coffee isn't sour or burnt, though one wishes it were stronger. But the menu offers both the usual and the un-. Five variations of Benedicts at an old-fashioned counter with regulars bantering with staff? This is the place. Just be prepared to pay cash.

Inside, the counter shows with a dozen stools, a gaggle of booths and several two-tops, restaurant-speak for smaller tables. Several framed items pay tribute to the mid-'70s band Head East, whose first album, Flat as a Pancake, was shot here. Breakfast, quite properly, is available all day.

A serious discussion of the menu has to begin with the Bananas Foster Waffle. Bananas are cooked briefly in a brown sugar sauce, poured over a malted waffle, and topped with ice cream. But the taste isn’t that simple. The bananas are not dead ripe, so as to avoid them falling into mush; thus there’s a little acidity from the fruit. The waffle adds saltiness to the mix. When the sweet and cold chime in, the contrasts just sing.

Hollandaise is actually made from scratch, a quite respectable version to grace the Benedicts. Not many diners know how to poach eggs well, but here they’re tender and fresh. English muffin bases aren’t toasted into plastic, and everything from spinach and tomato to crab cakes can come in between. The hollandaise is also a highlight of the Hot Hash & Holly: potatoes, onions, green pepper, and ham topped with eggs, and the lemony sauce anointing the potato mixture.

The New York deli standard called a Leo merges lox, eggs, and onions in scrambled eggs. The diner’s take throws in a few capers as well and a slight hint of dill, perking things up even more. Yes, there’s a slinger on the menu, with chili so bronze it’s the color of expensive Italian leather. One of these days we’re going to order it on one of those waffles. (We also dream of urging them to try a pineapple Foster, but we’re prepared to be met with scorn.)

Excellent service, but for the best floor show, sit at the counter and watch the cooks work. If you forget your cash, there’s an ATM in the back.

The bottom line: Plain and fancy, take your pick.