For the holidays for years and years, it’s been my tradition to cook up a seafood gumbo for my family’s Christmas dinner.
So, when I spied gumbo on the menu at Another Broken Egg Café? I absolutely had to try it.
I was meeting my friend Amanda there for lunch; the restaurant chain—with locations across the Southeast, Texas, the Midwest, and even California—just hatched in Augusta earlier this year. I’d watched its construction with interest every time I shopped at the nearby Kroger. And it was finally my turn to check it out.
I was there a little earlier than Amanda and got our table. Our server brought by menus and stayed to chat about the cold day, ending with a cheery and sincere, “Thank you so much for coming!”—which I thought was such a nice touch. The interior is warm and welcoming too, with colors like soothing robin’s egg blue and taupe, accents of dark wood and farmhouse décor. The sign along one wall made me grin: “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy brunch and that’s basically the same thing.”
At Another Broken Egg, you can buy brunch (or breakfast or lunch) happiness for less than $20. The generously sized menu features a variety of eggs benedicts, omelettes and scramblers (including lighter varieties with egg whites), or fancy pancakes and French toast (which they call “Indulgences,” another term I love; consider the fact they have a strawberry pound cake French toast!).
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There are also popular breakfast items like biscuit and gravy or huevos rancheros, platters and lunch combos, sandwiches and salads, and other more unusual items, like biscuit beignets or my gumbo. A specials menu with seasonal indulgences, an omelette and a benedict, along with festive libations, plus a full menu of spiked coffees and cocktails round out the options.
Amanda had already glanced at the menu online and soon decided to get out of her comfort zone by ordering a benedict—something she’d never tried before. That helped me decide on the gumbo, since I was wavering a bit when I saw there was also shrimp and grits or chicken and waffles. I love both of those dishes, but gumbo is harder to find on Augusta menus. Plus, it was a brand-new addition to Another Broken Egg (jambalaya was also recently added).
While we message all the time, Amanda and I hadn’t seen each other in a while, so we had a lot to catch up on. Suddenly our meals arrived. I loved how mine was displayed, in a round bowl like an enormous shell, filled with the savory soup, topped with two slices of focaccia and a lemon wedge. Amanda’s was plated on a wide dish, with lots of bacon scattered atop her Eggs Blackstone Benedict—featuring grilled tomato and green onions along with the usual poached eggs (Amanda ordered hers poached hard), hollandaise and English muffin—served with a cup of crispy potatoes.
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While I didn’t try her meal, she said it was good. And with her encouragement, I snuck one of her potatoes; it was as crispy as it looked, with a nice, slightly spicy seasoned coating.
That spice was a good precursor to my gumbo, which was warmly spicy, but not too spicy. Another Broken Egg’s version features a rich meaty sauce, with deep flavor—that’s what you get when you cook the roux to a nice caramel (IYKYK). There were silky peppers and okra in the sauce, which was atop a scoop of perfectly cooked rice.
The seafood—because it was supposed to be a seafood gumbo with shrimp, crab and crawfish—were tiny delicate bites; I did wish the seafood was more visible. But the flavor was definitely there, and the lemon, which I squeezed over my meal, added just the right amount of brightness to enhance it. With the buttery focaccia, it was a wonderful lunch for a cold day.
To be fair, I can’t compare it to my family’s gumbo. As with most dishes, this was one of many riffs on a theme. But I liked it for its differences—–especially if Another Broken Egg would consider adding more seafood (please?). So, while it wasn’t quite Christmas yet, a great gumbo with great company definitely made the Christmas season feel a little bit closer.
Make Your Reservation
Another Broken Egg Café
1095 Alexander Dr., Suite 100
Cost: $9.99 to $17.29
