Sugar n Spice
 Cincinnatti, Ohio      Date of Visit: 09/08/13     
http://sugar-n-spice-restaurant.com/

Coming off le Diner en Blanc the night before I hopped onto Yelp to find a real Cincinnati breakfast option. Sugar n Spice was highly recommended but I was sort of jaded by how good Tom n Chee had been. You ain’t gonna capture lightening in a bottle twice on a first trip to a city. Their website makes a lot of noise about something called wispy thin pancakes and I saw a ridiculous breakfast platter named Slaughterhouse Five.
 



 


 
 


That's Unique
 

 I read it, Vonnegut isn’t really my super fav but I did enjoy the reference and figured we ought to be set. The building certainly stands out in bright blue, yellow and pink. There is also an international pig themed statue in celebration of pancakes off one corner of the restaurant.

The place is beyond tiny. There is a small square counter and a limited number of booths against the walls. There doesn’t seem to be empty seats for more than a couple of seconds.

The staff has a hint of Mel’s Diner to them in a fun sort of way, I was waiting to hear the required “Kiss my Grits” at some point. The walls are painted with exceptionally well done pictures of breakfast classics (my one picture was horrible) and there is a near exhaustive collection of little rubber duckies shelved around the entrance. Ernie would be beside himself.
 

 
 
Don't Worry, There Is More Chocolate Inside
 

I Now Have An Official Definition of "Wispy"
 
 

The Special Of The Day
 

With Huge Chunks Of Gravy
 
  When we got there they had biscuits and gravy on special and I was suddenly torn. We got both, there was no way we were finishing either but it was our one trip. Steph ordered the wispy pancakes with chocolate chips. They are thin and have chocolate chips mixed in, not just a few sprinkled over the top. I'm not sure if they just spread a traditional pancake batter thinly on the griddle or of they mix a lighter batter more like crepes but they do turn out "wispy". I think they have something, instead of dense discs of sweet the thinner version increases the proportion of the browned proteins in the flour, it works. It must. They’ve been making them since 1941.

The biscuits were fine, the gravy was seriously rich with huge chunks of sagey sausage just hanging out, a steal at $5. The slaughterhouse five is a thesis in the deliciousness of hog. Alongside two eggs, homefries and toast are a rasher of bacon, a sausage link, a pork patty, smoked sausage and half a goetta. The first three were fine, the bacon was done to a nice crisp without going dark and the link and patty were full of porkiness. The smoked sausage was spectacular, oozing juiciness and spice with a warm note of smoke. This was the first goetta I had tried in its purer state (without the rest of the sandwich from Tom n Chee) and alone that bite of the oats really stands out. One city in two days, two great meals and three great times. We will be back to Cinci.
 

 


The Slaughterhouse Five
 


Pork Five Ways
 


Smokes Sausage Was Gorgeous
 


I'm A Goetta Convert & Probably 5 Millionth Person To Say Gotta Getta Some Goetta
 
  Ratings  
 
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  A- B B A C B+  
        Wispiness & Pork Hashbrowns    
 
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