The Jersey sisters hesitated to go to Jersey Brothers.
People from the Garden State, we realize, can be picky ranging on pains in the neck about food, particularly if it is more informal in nature. A New Jerseyan will assault your ears for hours about exactly how spicy the sauce on a hot dog all the way should be, where the best crumb buns may be found or what constitutes a good Taylor Ham sandwich. Don’t even start about pizza or hard rolls. We know. Just ask us.
That’s what makes trips to places that advertise themselves as “from Jersey” or even “like Jersey” tricky, so when you see a place in which “Jersey” is in its name, it seems even more dubious. But fair is fair, and we’d heard from a number of friends that Jersey Brothers Diner actually was a good little restaurant, so off to Palm Bay we went. And you know what? They were right.
It is plain as plain can be, located in the Harris district, off Palm Bay Road, its only real décor being some black and white photos of life in the area of Nork (Newark) at the front of the place, near the register. Otherwise, a couple of blackboards carry daily specials. It seems that someone is cleaning nonstop; it is immaculate.
Service is fast, with friendly and highly competent servers, which they pretty much must be with business such as Jersey Brothers does on a Saturday morning. It is big enough for you to avoid lines, but things do move and the place is popular.
The breakfast menu is extensive, with egg, griddled and fruit dishes you’d expect, and although it lists six Benedicts, it’s not one of those creative kitchens such as, for example, Cypress Table or Mulberry Lane, have. Basically, it serves the basics, though I keep thinking about those lemon ricotta pancakes ($9.99) and whether they beat Hipster Denny’s.
I opted for what I always get, two scrambled eggs with cheese ($9.99), cooked soft, this time with Taylor Ham, a biscuit and hash browns.
For what it’s worth, scrambled eggs are ordered cooked soft with cheese, partially because that’s the way I like them and partially because so many restaurants mess them up. Either you get the eggs cooked hard, the cheese flopped on top of them and not mixed through or a combination of the two. These were spot-on: Eggs served hot and fluffy with lots of a good quality Colby mixture folded into and around them.
The Taylor Ham was just fine, though I wish it had been cut a bit thicker and grilled a bit browner. And photos can be deceiving: Those hash browns were cooked to a lovely shade of light brown, so you got lots of potato flavor rather than a mouthful of oil.
The biscuit was excellent; so much for my long-held theory that Northerners are genetically indisposed toward making biscuits or sweet tea just as Southerners are to making spaghetti sauce (Yes. Sauce.) or Irish stew. It was a first-class, Dixie-style biscuit, and we wished that a certain biscuit expert had been with us. Darn those vacations.
Jersey Sister had a Florentine Benedict ($11.99), a couple of poached eggs topped with tomato, spinach and Hollandaise, served with fruit. She liked it because her English muffin was toasted dark, as requested, but thought that perhaps a little less pepper could have been used in the mixture. The Hollandaise was not hot (i.e., not broken or instant) and neither too thick nor too thin, with just enough lemony goodness. The fruit was just fine.
So were the grits ($1.99) we ordered on the side, because grits amount to another breakfast test. Specialty-mill grits are great. Regular grits are fine. Instant grits are a no-go, ever. These were decent grits.
Truthfully, we wished we’d ordered lunch too, because when we stopped a server to see a club sandwich, it turned out to have cut-from-the-bird turkey, and we were told that all fowl and corned beef is made in house.
Chef Miguel Segura, you need two more things to have a Jersey diner in full: homemade Danish pastry and crumbcake. Still, we’re coming back for sandwiches. We have the feeling they’ll wear the “Jersey” label well too.
Jersey Brothers Diner
Three and a half stars
Address: 2162 Harris Ave., Palm Bay
Hours: 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily
Call: 321-676-1200
Online: https://jerseybrothersdinerpb.com
Other: Daily soups, specials; homemade desserts; special holiday meals, including Passover.
Lyn Dowling is a freelance food and lifestyles writer based in Melbourne. Join the conversation atfacebook.com/groups/321FlavorWhereBrevardEats.
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About our reviews
Restaurants are rated on a five-star system by FLORIDA TODAY’s reviewer. The reviews are the opinion of the reviewer and take into account quality of the restaurant’s food, ambiance and service. Ratings reflect the quality of what a diner can reasonably expect to find. To receive a rating of less than three stars, a restaurant must be tried twice and prove unimpressive on each visit. Each reviewer visit is unannounced and paid for by FLORIDA TODAY.