Bradford Junction Restaurant & Bakery - 15

Date: 8/14/10

Restaurant: Bradford Junction Restaurant & Bakery   
Address: 2370 State Rt. 114   
City: Bradford   
Phone: 938-2424

Breakfast Hours: 6-2:30 7 days/wk       


CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP and GOOD!
           
Potatoes ***
Kind: Home fries.
Inconsistent size. Many were too big. The ones that were smaller had a nice crisp to them, but the bigger ones were way too soft.  

      
   
Toast *****
Kind: Anadama   
Homemade? Yes
The bread was wonderful. Sliced thick and loaded with butter. The perfect amount of molasses made it very flavorful without being overpowering.

Bacon *****
Hot and perfectly cooked.
    

Muffin ***
Kind: Blueberry   
Homemade? Yes
This muffin was nicely grilled and had a sufficient amount of wild blueberries. Unfortunately, it lacked flavor. My well trained tongue said that it needed some salt in the batter. If we were rating for value we would have given it a 4, you can't beat 60¢ for a homemade muffin, but the taste rating was only a 2.

  
   

SERVER RECOMMENDATION
Our server said the "Upper Berth" and "Lower Berth" and the omelets were all big sellers.

SVEN'S BREAKFAST **** Junction Special Omelet with toast and potatoes.
Peppers, onions, tomatoes and American cheese. Believe it or not folks, Sven said, "Awesome!" (I really think he is getting soft in his old age). Perfectly cooked in the middle but a little overdone on the edges. Delish.

Junction Special Omelet with Anadama toast

OLGA'S BREAKFAST *** Blueberry Pancakes with bacon.
Plenty of wild blueberries but like the muffin, it lacked salt. I sprinkled some on, which helped a bit with the flavor, but didn't help with the dense, chewy texture. Fortunately, for and extra $1.25, I opted for real maple syrup. There was plenty of it to drown the pancakes in. Anything is delicious with enough maple syrup on it!

Blueberry Pancakes (minus one piece of bacon)

SERVICE ***
The service started out as pretty bad, but got better. When we first arrived we were told to sit where ever we wanted. There was only one 2-top that was not in the center of the room and we wanted it. We noticed that it was still dirty from the previous patrons, so we paused a bit to see if it would be cleaned. All the wait people ignored it. After a few we went and stood by the table to see if they would get the hint. Nope. They didn't get it. Once we actually sat down at the table someone came right over and cleaned it off for us. From that point on the service was fine. Our server was friendly and our cups were always full.    
  

 
DECOR ****
It was a cozy place full of wood and big windows in the back. The walls were random width WP4 V-match premium grade pine (thanks Sven!) and everything from the booths to the tables and bar were wood. The walls had numerous framed photo collages. The only thing I didn't like about the place was they had a large quantity of Bradford Junction t-shirts and sweatshirts, for sale, hanging in a couple random places in the dining room, which definitely took away from the coolness of the place. Part of the restaurant was set up like a dining car on a train. It's too bad that section was closed when we were there.  
    
   
NOTES
It seemed like a family operation. Noticed one server calling another "Mom" and I think it was "Dad" who came out and cleared our plates. A huge quantity of loaves of fresh bread and homemade English muffins were available for purchase. It appeared as though they had some sort of "mug club" with shelves behind the bar filled with matching mugs with names on them. Can only assume these were for "regulars" of the place. It was a full house with folks old and young. I got the feeling that was like that most of the time and it didn't have anything to do with the League of NH Craftsmen fair going on that weekend.

SVEN'S TAKE    


When the waitress at the Bradford Junction slipped the paper placemats down onto the table in front of me, there were two things that immediately caught my eye. The first thing was that the placemat had an ad for the Bradford Bog People – an old-timey band that I'd heard of but never heard.  I wonder what made them decide to advertise on a placemat? Very unusual, but very cool, I thought. I figure that one of the folks in the band must have had something to do with the layout or printing of the placemat and made good use of the opportunity to get their name out there. Bravo.

The second thing I noticed was that the place mat itself was old-timey. I mean old-timey like 1940's pricing. The whole center section includes a breakfast menu, and at first glance I assumed that it must have been a mistake. The prices were so low, that these either had to be old-stock placemats, or a nod to the pricing that would have been in effect when the place was first opened. Turns out I was wrong. The prices were real. Game on!

A half an hour later, I could happily report that the food was real -- real good -- too. Great omelet, fantastic toast, adequate potatoes, muffin and coffee. When we left, I was filled up, and it only cost about $12 for both of us, including tax and a 20% tip. Suffice it say that if I lived closer to Bradford, I'd eat breakfast here several times a week.