I talked with composer and one-man-band Buddy Nutt yesterday, and he has agreed to score this new production too.  You remember that he and his wife UkuLizzy sang our theme song at the end of BREAKFAST SPECIAL 1:

Back when we were traveling in 2010, our excellent editor Kevin Conrad was creating short video samples of the stories.  He called them “tastes” and we’ve got a nice collection.  These are “tastes” of some of the stories that we hope to include in our new show:

We also included a short stop on the Big Island of Hawaii in our Donuts episode of IT’S PITTSBURGH & A LOT OF OTHER STUFF.   With our blogger-guides Beverly and James Rubio, we stopped at Baker Tom’s roadside bakery for some savory and sweet malasadas.  Fresh and Portuguese, those malasadas were unquestionably some of my favorite donuts ever.  You can see that segment in our donuts show: (go directly to minute 12:15 if you want to watch just the Hawaiian section of the show)

Click on the image to be taken to the It's Pittsburgh episode.

And if you haven’t tasted these other “tastes” of stories that we featured in the original special, you can see them all here:

We hope all these tastes will make you hungry for a new celebration of going out for a morning meal!

We loved our many morning meals (and interviews) at all 17 of the spots that we visited.  We edited and squeezed only 8 restaurants into the first show, so there are 9 (or maybe 10) more stories that we’re working on to assemble into BREAKFAST SPECIAL PART 2:

1. The first place where we shot:  Square Cafe in the Pittsburgh neighborhood called Regent Square.

Great food, cool and colorful atmosphere, lots of regulars and big crowds on weekends.  I realized here how important it is to have the owner/operator around.  Customers like to know there’s an immediate connection with the management.  And owner Sherree Goldstein here is like a celebrity.  Here she is cooperating with the paparazzi.

2.  The second place we visited was the sizzling Hot Metal Diner where owner Wendy Betten has built a loyal clientele that loves her big, beautiful and tasty breakfasts as well as the saucy attitude of the servers.

Wendy and her staff put on a rough and tough attitude here, with a set of posted rules for the diner, but the atmosphere stays homey and fun, knowing that we’re all in on the jokes.

3.  In late January 2010, we drove to Philadelphia to Carman’s Country Kitchen where you sit in unusual surroundings, the food is extraordinary and often surprising, and where the banter among Carman Luntzel in the kitchen, her staff and her customers is lively and fun.

I knew about this amazing breakfast spot because I’d been there once before with Holly Moore, the fabled master of hollyeats.com and a “star” of our program called SANDWICHES THAT YOU WILL LIKE.  He met us at Carman’s again.

The #4 special that day was duck breast with eggs, and it was scrumptious.  This is Carman.  With an omelette.

4.  On our Southern trip in mid-February, we stopped in Columbia, South Carolina, at Anson Mills where they make some well respected grits, using heirloom corn varieties and some ancient production techniques.  Their facilities are in a nondescript metal building behind a car wash on Gervais Street.

We could have spent more time there.  Lots of interesting processes going on all the time.

5.  We also shot and interviewed our way through a delicious morning in Raleigh, North Carolina, at Big Ed’s City Market.

It’s an anchor of sorts for a historic little 1914 neighborhood called City Market in downtown Raleigh, and owners Sam Hobgood and Clay Culpepper treated us well, letting us wander from kitchen to restaurant and back and forth a hundred times.   The grill cook here, Spencer, was one of the fastest and best short order cooks we saw anywhere.

Betty Sue made the biscuits, and they’re basically perfect with whatever you put on ‘em.

6.  Eventually, in mid-March, we headed west.   After Portland and San Francisco, we found ourselves in Hawaii where James and Beverly Rubio had agreed to be our guides on the Big Island.

Our first morning there we all went to Ken’s House Of Pancakes, a Hilo landmark, not far from the airport.

We had the local specialty called loco moco, a breakfast bowl of rice with hamburger, gravy and eggs.

We interviewed Ric Maiava, the owner, several waitresses and waiters, and we learned some of the place’s traditions, including the banging of the Sumo gong!

7.  On our second morning in Hawaii, a typically rainy day on the eastern coast of the Big Island, James and Beverly wanted to take us north from Hilo about 60 miles to the town of Waimea (sometimes called Kamuela.)

Before we started our drive, they confessed that they usually stopped on this journey to get “malasadas” or Portuguese fried donuts at a roadside bakery run by a guy named Baker Tom.

We had to stop.  The idea of a roadside bakery was so seductive.  There should be more!  And Baker Tom let us shoot him and his wares for a brief extra story.

8.  In Waimea, we followed James and Beverly into the parking lot for a small line of shops where we found the Hawaiian Style Cafe.

It’s an amazing place with a big U-shaped counter where people sit and chat and catch up on the local news.

We did our usual mix of interviews:  owner, cooks, eaters, all the usual suspects.

But we  were truly knocked out by the food here and some of the unexpected breakfasts.  They also make elaborate and huge variations on loco moco.  Enough food for all day!

9.  In April 2010, we headed for the Northeast, for New England, where we went first to a grand old hotel that’s been restored and updated and turned into a jewel of a Marriott.  It’s called Wentworth By The Sea.  It’s in New Hampshire.

And it’s here that I had lobster hash with poached eggs back in 2006, and I always think of it as one of the great breakfasts of my life.

We gathered interviews, footage of the kitchen and the restaurant in operation.

We were surprised by a group of Red Hat Ladies who had come to the hotel for an annual great breakfast.  It’s a spectacular setting for a great breakfast.

10.  While in New England we also shot footage for a story about the Post Road Diner in Norwalk, Connecticut.  It’s right off I-95 at exit 14.  It’s a beauty of a lovingly restored old diner with location, location, location and gleaming chrome detailing, even in the early morning rain.

We met our old friend Gary Zemola, the Super Duper Weenie Man from A HOT DOG PROGRAM, there.  He had suggested this place as a beauty of a diner with wonderful breakfast fare.  And he was right.

We interviewed him, as well as the owner, the woman at the register, lots of customers, and a guy named Mark Kotlinski who had e-mailed me because he was making a new documentary about Connecticut diners.  We had a blast.

And some amazing French toast, made with bread baked on the premises!

So now we’re working on getting all these stories edited.  And we hope we’ll have a BREAKFAST SPECIAL 2 ready by the Winter of 2011.  So much great stuff to share.

Our program called BREAKFAST SPECIAL aired on most PBS stations on Wednesday evening July 14 at 8 PM.  The reactions have been very kind.  TV critic Robert Bianco in USATODAY made my day.   Bianco’s remarks inspired Pittsburgh Post-Gazette blogger Chad Herman to post an introduction he wrote several years ago when I gave one of those “Last Lectures” at Carnegie Mellon University, years before Randy Pausch made his, and Chad’s posting was an unexpected honor.  Tons of other very nice notes on my Facebook page (friend me) and on Facebook’s Official Inside Scoop On Rick Sebak (like that.)  I’ve also set up a Facebook “page” for Breakfast Special.  And who knows what you might find on Twitter (follow me @rickaroundhere)?

All of the positive reactions are gratifying, but this isn’t a completed project yet.   In the middle of the editing process, we realized we had a problem:  too much good material.  Bob and Glenn and I had been to 17 places around the country, but when Kevin and I finished editing 8 stories, we realized we were already at our time limit.  Do we cut the stories in half to make room for 8 or 9 more?  (Oh, that hurts!)  Or do we cut the material in two and go for a 2-part-er?  (Eek, we’ve never tried that before!)  We decided on the latter course of action.

I talk to my boss at WQED.  I call PBS.  I confer with Kevin and Matt and Frank in the editing room.  We talked with Buddy Nutt about the music.  We finished the show on June 5, and I drove it to Virginia on Sunday June 6 so we could meet all our PBS deadlines.

So, if you’ve seen BREAKFAST SPECIAL, you know we’ve been to Cartwright’s Maple Tree Inn in rural New York state, to The Breakfast Club on Tybee Island in Georgia,  and to two places in Columbus Ohio:  Skillet and The Best Breakfast & Sandwiches, both of which were suggested by Nick Dekker who writes the blog called “Breakfast With Nick.” We also stopped in the Cuban spot called La Herencia Cafe in Saint Augustine, Florida, and then learned a little about “jook” or congee at Hing Lung Restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown, thanks to Sandy Wada, her friend Kent Liu and her blog called “Foodhoe’s Foragings.” We capped off the program with visits to Tin Shed and Helser’s On Alberta, both in Portland, Oregon, both suggested by Paul Gerald who writes the blog called “Breakfast In Bridgetown” and a guidebook with the same name (and now apparently a collector’s item until the 2nd Edition comes out.)

If you’ve followed us on this blog and out website (where there are “tastes” of several stories), you know there are lots of places still to come.

So I was a little wary at first, but recently we’ve been partnering with KINGS restaurants around Pittsburgh here to promote my PBS program and to advertise some new breakfast items at their restaurants.  And there’s this new, superbly silly animated spot airing on our local commercial TV stations that lets me push my show and then lets Hartley King introduce some of the new dishes.   It’s a work of art.

Actually a lot of people have worked on this new partnership, and I think it could be a model for future linkings of local businesses with public TV.

WQED Account Executive Lance Jones in our Broadcasting Sales & Underwriting Department worked with Tracey Roman at Smith Brothers Agency on the North Shore, and they pulled in the rest of us as needed.  All I did was go and get my picture taken and then record my voice in our tiny announcer’s booth booth here on the ground floor of WQED.

Craig Seder was the Associate Creative Director at Smith Brothers, and bravo to him! I’m not sure who first came up with the “bounciful” style of the cut-out animation since it has been used in KINGS commercials for a while now, but I’m just laughing at finding myself in that world.

Thanks to everybody involved.

All along, I’ve thought that if I were asked the same question, I’d say “I remember a breakfast at this beautiful old historic hotel on the coast of New Hampshire. I had lobster hash with poached eggs. Hollandaise on the side. An amazing meal. Unexpected. The best.” I have this picture from that morning back in May 2006. (Yes, I was taking pictures of food even back then.)

I was at this huge old hotel called Wentworth By The Sea with my mother then because we were on a week-long road trip around New England. It was my present to her for her birthday that year. Here’s Mom at that same breakfast. She had coffee and a croissant. Not a big eater that Peg.

My sister Nisey had suggested we include a stop at this grand hotel because she had always loved it since she first saw it decades ago when she was a Girl Scout camp counselor in New Hampshire, and she often bicycled by the crumbling old place (then in terrible shape.) Then she heard that it had been restored and re-opened in 2004, and she wanted us to see it.

It is a glorious place, built in 1874, and it’s been the scene of historic events, historic visits and some pretty great breakfasts. It’s a beautiful structure, a destination, a truly memorable getaway, a romantic seaside escape, and now a deluxe Marriott Hotel & Spa.

So, since I had maybe the best breakfast of my life there, I want to come back and find out about and taste again the lobster hash that captivated me so.

Camera guy Bob Lubomski, audio man Glenn Syska and I drove from Pittsburgh to the Wentworth on Thursday April 22 2010. It goes like this. We meet at WQED at 7 am. Hit the highway before 8, heading northeast. 630 miles. Lunch in Wilkes Barre PA. Dinner in Hampton NH. We get to the hotel about 9:30, unload the van and go to our rooms. We’re supposed to be in the kitchen tomorrow morning at 6 am. When you make a show about breakfasts, you have to get up early.

We met executive sous chef Matt Louis (on the right above) and a.m. supervisor Chris Burnett (on left) the next morning in the hotel’s sizable kitchen. We began by doing an interview with Matt about his background, hotel breakfasts and the best things to order here at the Wentworth. When we started to talk about making the hash, he brought in Chris to help, and they had prepped ingredients to show us how they put together an order of the lobster treat. We started them and stopped them. Then started them again. We asked a few questions. Matt seemed totally comfortable on camera. He chopped a lot of yellow and red bell peppers.

Eventually we would see the hash plated and presented in the dining room. You eat breakfast in one of the most beautiful spots in the hotel. Domed ceiling with vintage cherubs, lots of nice morning light.

I think the serving of hash looks bigger than it did four years ago. The presentation is slightly more formal, and the skewer of square-cut fruits is a good touch.

The basil hollandaise was excellent, making the scrumptious dish even richer and more complex. I’m happy to say that it held up to my expectations. It’s a phenomenally good breakfast.

The chefs told us however that they probably sell more Eggs Wentworth (above) than lobster hash. Eggs Wentworth is an Eggs Benedict variation with an English muffin, slices of tomato and then slices of butter-poached lobster with poached eggs and hollandaise. Served with hash browns. I like the little pieces of claw meat that they set on the side.

Did I mention that the local Red Hat Ladies came to the restaurant this morning because it was National Red Hat Day, and they make an annual pilgrimage to the Wentworth for breakfast?

Their entry with big blasts of bright colors was a wonderful addition to the morning scene. It was somewhat Fellini-esque. Some of them opted for the grand breakfast buffet but many ordered Eggs Wentworth and perhaps a plate of lobster hash or two?

Did I say that this stately historic hotel is only a mile or so from the Maine border? All of these lobster breakfasts are all made with the world’s best Maine lobsters, but we enjoyed them nonetheless in New Hampshire.

When you’re in such regal surroundings, you expect to be well fed, and the Wentworth kitchen doesn’t disappoint. I was obviously impressed when I first came here four years ago, and I based my decision to come back here solely on my own impressions. But after I was there for a while in the kitchen, I realized that these people really care about the food, the service, the quality of the whole experience, and after seeing some of the ratings sheets on the bulletin board, I found out that Wentworth By The Sea is regularly recognized (on a weekly basis!) as the best breakfast and the best overall food in any Marriott facility. This place is widely recognized as a great spot for a morning meal! I wasn’t crazy to want to include it in the program. I need to send my sister there so she can see it now.

This is the unusual place that serves buckwheat pancakes three meals a day but only for 8 or 9 weeks a year.  The 2010 season ends this Sunday, April 11. The lines can be long, but as this video clip shows, you may meet some interesting characters while waiting.  (Kevin Conrad edited this clip with video shot by Bob Lubomski, audio by Glenn Syska and music by Buddy Nutt.)

We were there on the first weekend in March, and they weren’t making maple syrup in the basement yet, but we’re sure they’re cooking full tilt now. And Rhonda will still be making and serving pancakes. I say, Sit at the counter. The show is better there.

Back when we were there, we made a quick blog-video (edited by Glenn Syska with video and audio by Ryan Krumm) and you can watch that one again too!

These guys know how to make some scrumptious Scotch eggs and some good looking food.  (And a big thanks to Gretchen, Alex Helser’s sister, for her proud-sibling comment on the original post!)

I’ve already written a bit about our visit to Anson Mills in Columbia, South Carolina, but now we have some video back-up too.  It’s a “taste” of carefully produced heirloom grits.

Sometimes I feel hopelessly behind in my blog.  Up till now, I haven’t written a thing about our one fine day in St Augustine, Florida, with Manny and Janett Herrero.   This was back on February 17, 2010.  It was a cool morning in northern Florida.

Now our hard-working editor Kevin Conrad has prepared a short segment that shows some of the footage we captured that day.   He’s been making these “tastes” of the various places for our website, and when Kevin gets them together, then Ryan Krumm makes the computer files that we need, then Jay Volk puts them up on the Breakfast Special website, and Mike Cuccaro uploads these clips to YouTube too.

So we had gone to St Augustine to check out the breakfast specials at this little Cuban café called La Herencia.  I found it on line and was instantly impressed by the very positive comments left by customers, regulars as well as tourists passing through the oldest city in North America.

Aviles Street claims to be the oldest street in America, and it is just off Plaza de la Constitución in the very heart of St Augustine.  La Herencia is at number 4 Aviles Street.  Impressive address.  Not hard to find.

We got to sample several dishes that day.  Manny creates all the wonderful food on tiny gas burners in he kitchen.  Janett makes the coffee, and several patrons that day told us that the café con leche  alone was worth stopping for.  We learned how true that was.

But we also were impressed with Manny’s Cuban-American breakfast creation that he calls the guajiro.  Cuban bread with egg on top, then black beans, chunks of pork, salsa and cheese.  Delicious, filling and unusual.  Just what we had hoped to find.

We’re back in Pittsburgh, and while we were away, clever editor Kevin Conrad has been busy reviewing footage and playing with our interviews and b-roll.  He makes the tantalizing “tastes” of the various stories that we’ve shot.

So suddenly he takes us back to Raleigh, North Carolina, to the kitchen at Big Ed’s City Market Restaurant.  Good grits.  Stupendous waitresses.  Red-eye gravy.  And beautiful biscuits.  Watch.