Chapter 6 - Breakfast, Food for Thought

Plan breakfast in your signature style and
your guests will eat it up!


I thought I'd take a break from the boring stuff that you need to know about starting a bed and breakfast (there's more coming, of course) and spend time on some of the fun stuff - like the food.

Guests love home made jam

Food is an important part of a bed and breakfast get-away and there are as many ways to offer yummy food to your guests as there are inn keepers.

Some offer very elaborate breakfasts with lots of choices - everything from scrambled eggs and omelets to pancakes, French toast and quiche. 

Others offer a simple, help yourself, continental breakfast buffet of muffins, juice and coffee. 

And, we even know of one, in town bed and breakfast, that has you call the coffee shop across the street to order a take out breakfast that is delivered to your room.

What's important is to decide on how tied you want to be to be to the breakfast you offer.  You also need to plan what will be done if you can't cook or provide breakfast should you get sick or have an emergency.  The plans you make today are not carved in stone.  You'll tweak them over time as you gather tips and tricks from other B&B's.



Eggs and potatoes are
classic breakfast fare.
Olive oil braised baby artichokes
make things fun!

**We offer an in-suite breakfast picnic.  We came up with that idea because, although we love to stay in bed and breakfasts, we don't like having to eat on a schedule when we're on vacation and don't like choosing a seating time for breakfast - which is too often early like 8am and 9am.  So, when we planned our bed and breakfast, we wanted our guests to be able to get up at their leisure with breakfast waiting for them when they were ready.

An in-room breakfast was perfect for our B&B.  Each of our suites has a wet bar, microwave, refrigerator and coffee pot so it would be easy to orchestrate.

Our home made
Sally Lunn Bread

We pack a lavish breakfast picnic for each suite and deliver it the night before. Home made granola, fresh fruit and yogurt is the main course with a generous assortment of breakfast breads, muffins and buns, to round things off.  We stock each refrigerator with fresh, organic milk, creamery butter, home made jam and orange juice. 

When guests bring young children, we also make up a special, child size picnic of packaged cereal (like Rice Krispies) and hot chocolate.  Guests are invited to get up at their leisure and relax over breakfast or, if they want to be out and about early, to take their picnic breakfast with them.

When we host a group that occupies all our rooms, we serve breakfast in the dining room so guests can mix and mingle - which is what they're here to do.

When planning the breakfast part of your bed and breakfast, plan how it will fit with your personality, life style and cooking ability. There's no right or wrong way. The only rule is that there should be good food and lots of it!

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**  Since this post we've modified our in suite breakfast to breakfast in the dining room, family style, at one set time.  The guests have the option of taking the breakfast back to their rooms if they prefer more privacy.  Our guests just seem to enjoy the company of others - the B&B personality we've come to call it - so we've evolved to encourage mingling.

We offer one menu but guests help themselves so they can choose the items they like in the amounts they prefer.  We offer a varied selection of dishes and try to have something for every taste.

Occasionally (rarely actually) a guest will ask for something specific (like do you have Rice Krispies or can you make me an egg white omelet) and we always try to be accommodating.

Saturday is simple, farm house fare.  On Sunday we pull out the stops with our fancy, southern specialties.