Las Vegas Weekly

December 11, 2008 · 10:33 PM

The Cracked Egg cooks up breakfast in Henderson

By Jennifer Grafiada

Eggs are so much better cracked.

Photo: Richard Brian

On any given Saturday morning, The Cracked Egg’s tables are cluttered with kids scribbling with crayons on their menus and getting sticky from their banana chocolate chip pancakes. It’s an artistic orgy of wax, syrup and pancake dough. Cute, and, according to WikiAnswers, totally safe. The site says eating wax is only “maybe a little” deadly, and only “if you eat like 5 pounds of it.”

But let’s get back to breakfast. While The Cracked Egg is big on families and benedicts, don’t dare compare it to Denny’s or IHOP. It’s more like the Rosemary’s of a.m. dining.

Plates overflow with creative takes on omelettes, pancakes and waffles. You can get your eggs cracked, of course, then stuffed with spinach, broccoli and tomatoes, or defy your doctor (and your insurance provider) and order “The Big Bad Wolf” with sausage, ham, bacon and cheese. French toast variations come oozing coconut and macadamia nuts, raspberry cream cheese or peanut butter and honey. Beware of the homemade coffee cake, which comes in chocolate chip and lemon: Legend has it if you taste it once, you’ll crave it evermore.

The Egg’s lunch menu (“…because man cannot live on eggs alone…”) is a catalogue of salads, sandwiches and hamburgers, all served in gigantic portions. On Yelp.com a self-proclaimed “montecristo sandwich connoisseur” calls The Cracked Egg’s rendition “the best I’ve ever tasted…four stars.”

And Henderson diners can eat this up: The popular local mom-and-pop-ish restaurant with three locations around Vegas is opening a new one in December on Green Valley Parkway just north of 215, (in the Smith’s plaza – otherwise known as across the street from the Weekly office).

It will be the largest of the three locations, but will offer the same crowd-pleaser menu and cutesy, farmhouse décor. And it will, no doubt, be just as besieged, although we’re predicting more hybrid SUVs and velour jumpsuits at this location. And of course, more Weekly staffers; my coworkers are already planning lunch.

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