Cheap Eats - Candi’s for Breakfast

Irwin Street Market gets a new morning eatery

The Irwin Street Market has always been a kooky place – a gathering of homegrown crafty merchants selling everything from granola to coasters. Sadly, few of the businesses ever stay open for long. This was especially true when it came to the eateries. Here’s hoping one of its newest spots, Candi’s for Breakfast, sticks around for a while.

Candi’s for Breakfast occupies the counter where Jake’s Ice Cream and Delectables used to be. Jake’s moved to another stall in the market and owner Candi Hawkins is using most of the space for a hodgepodge of seating, including a sunroom and tables scattered throughout the rest of the space. It’s a weird place, but you somehow feel as if you are in a relative’s home or eclectic bed and breakfast off some remote Georgia highway.

Candi is the pink-cheeked gal whose cute caricature graces the menu. She zips around the restaurant with lovable frenetic energy.

The breakfast menu is lengthy and many items have Southern roots. Skip the floppy French toast made with generic sliced bread and go for the waffles made with biscuit dough tweaked with sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. For bargain hunters, there’s the Mississippi Slam: your choice of three buttermilk pancakes or a waffle, breakfast meat of your choice and a drink for $6.50.

Dense, fluffy and remarkably flaky biscuits are perfect with any of Candi’s homemade preserves. Hearty topped biscuits are customizable. Options include bacon, ham, roast beef, goat cheddar, Swiss cheese and a host of other toppings. Each bite into the behemoth biscuit sandwiches yields an avalanche of crumbly, buttery, gooey goodness.

The biscuits also serve as a foundation for some sinful spins on eggs Benedict, the best being the Southern Benedict: biscuits in place of English muffins, diced smoked ham, two fried eggs and a tangy hollandaise sauce. The stuffed biscuits are where the men are separated from the boys. Imagine a round biscuit on steroids stuffed like a calzone with your choice of cheeses, meats, vegetables and more. It’s wrong in every good way wrong can be. They take 20 minutes to make. Be patient and try to save your appetite. You’ll need it.

Candi’s for Breakfast. 660 Irwin Street. 678-614-7775. Tues.-Fri., 7 a.m.-3 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Lot parking.