Big Bad Breakfast
Big Bad Breakfast might seem like your common breakfast spot — until you taste the Tabasco/brown sugar bacon or the twice-fried portobello quesadillas and breakfast tacos.
After operating for about eight years in Oxford, Miss., Chef John Currence is debuting a second breakfast location in the former Movie Gallery behind Krispy Kreme near the intersection of Alabama 119 and U.S. 280.
“I think it is a solid, Southern breakfast menu that ventures out in all corners,” Currence said. “You see a little bit of odd things you wouldn’t expect.”
For Currence’s “crazy nod to chicken and waffles,” he’s serving up a giant Belgian waffle piled high with grilled and fried hot dog, chili, onions, slaw, mustard, pickles, jalapeños and oyster crackers.
“You are going to be able to go in and find something as user-friendly as eggs Benedict, but then all of a sudden you’ll get this crazy plate you’ve never seen before,” Currence said.
The menu is also always changing with new ideas and the limitless options. Currence said he hopes the opening of a second location will lead to the development of more “solid and cool recipes.”
The idea for the original restaurant started about 10 years prior to Currence pursuing it. The James Beard Award-winning chef, who also owns City Grocery and two other concepts in Oxford, thought applying the same philosophies to breakfast as people do to lunch and dinner would create a winning eatery.
“The farther I went down the road, the more I realized the attention wasn’t given to breakfast that it deserved,” Currence said. “It is the most important meal of the day, so it finally chipped away at me until I had the opportunity to get this property.”
Currence began working with local farmers to source his vegetables and proteins and developing ideas for his menu.
With all natural, all local and all from-scratch food, Currence opened the Oxford restaurant in 2006. From there, he started making new products such as his spicy-sweet bacon and jams, jellies and marmalades from local fruits.
“It was a departure for us a bit as far as what we typically did, but we took things that were familiar to us and applied simple principles to create this dynamite little breakfast place,” he said.
Now, after two years in the making, June 3 marked the opening of his second Big Bad Breakfast.
Nick Pihakis, owner of Jim ‘N Nick’s and other restaurants in the Fresh Hospitality group, played a role its opening as well. Currence said he and Pihakis have been friends for a long time, and Pihakis is constantly looking for new restaurant concepts.
After Pihakis first visited Big Bad Breakfast, Currence said he was crazy about the breakfast spot and began discussing the possibility of partnering up and duplicating it.
“For me it was a natural; I admire what they do,” Currence said. “I know they have the infrastructure to help us grow the brand, and it was a no-brainer for me to literally jump in and sign on with them.”
Currence said he knew Pihakis upholds standards of quality food, service and environment in their restaurants, and he was confident they could help Big Bad Breakfast grow.
“I couldn’t be any more excited,” Currence said. “The space is beautiful; we’ve got a great staff and a great local operator. We are in the space and having to beat people off with a stick — they can’t wait for us to open.”