It has been a tough couple years for breakfast spots in Great Falls, since the last pre-pandemic blog post here. Sometime during the pandemic the Fox Farm Diner closed, with that space now filled by a Mexican restaurant (no breakfasts). The 2K’s closed this year. Lippi’s Kitchen closed. That space will be filled by the former Missouri River Diner folks, and their former space across from the refinery … who knows. The folks who owned and ran The Family Affair announced they would be closing, but someone else picked it up. Hope it will still be as good. The Celtic Cowboy is no longer serving breakfast to the public. And now the Perkins downtown is closing, the entire hotel complex sold, with the new owner not committed to the Perkins brand for the restaurant space but supposedly simply going to put it out there for lease.
Perkins has always been there, ever since I started this breakfast search. It has always been there since I was a little kid, when its name was Perkins Cake and Steak and maybe even something else before that. The whole family would sometimes stop in after a scholarly Sunday or maybe Easter sermon from Rev. Vernon K. Hanks, across the street at the First United Methodist. Those were sure different times, dads and sons in suits and ties with moms and daughters in fancy dresses and hats with flowers (especially Easter), and the church services broadcast on the radio. But that was a long time ago, and I just never got around to trying an adult breakfast there. Now with just four days left, it was obviously time to finally give it a try.
All the wonderful looking muffins and rolls I remember as a kid are still there in the lobby display case. Probably not exactly the same muffins and rolls, because those would be pretty crusty by now, but you get the idea. The place is also very pleasantly surprisingly clean and modern and newish-looking, apparently having undergone some renovations in the relatively recent past.
They have a real good selection of breakfast stuff on their menu – omelettes, scrambles, French Toast and pancake specials, some big special plates that seem like they could feed an army, and of course the regular type breakfasts, a la carte eggs and bacon and so on.
We rated the food somewhere in the B/B+ range, mainly due to a slightly greater than average grease factor for the scramble, but otherwise it was good, with the usual large Great Falls portions. The coffees came with our own refill pot, the service was excellent, and the prices weren’t too awful, $12.99 for the scramble and $11.79 for a French Toast platter.
All in all a good solid satisfying breakfast experience, which will no doubt be greatly missed by its regulars unless someone else picks it up. It was a good run, Perkins.