City Egg | Facebook | T: @eatcityegg | IG: @eatcityegg
1478 Bethel Rd. (map it!)
Columbus, OH 43220
(614) 369-1101
Open daily 6:30a-3p
Vegetarian/vegan/gluten free? Y/N/N
Kid-friendly? Y
Visited: Thursday, July 6, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.
I think we’re all pretty familiar with the fast casual style – burritos at Chipotle, sushi at Fusian, rice bowls at Bibibop – so it should be no surprise that breakfast is joining the fray. In fact, maybe we should be surprised fast casual breakfast hasn’t become a thing sooner.
Regardless, it is now, in the form of City Egg, a fast casual concept store from the folks behind Scramblers. Their first store opened quietly a few weeks back on Bethel Road. I say quietly, but the stand-alone building, with some touches of bright egg yolk yellow, stands out pretty easily.
When you walk inside City Egg, you’re greeted by a row of touch-pad kiosks just underneath a hanging menu. There were a couple employees present who walked us through every step of the process. They were being helpful, although it got a little overwhelming trying to understand the screens and answer the employees’ questions at the same time.
Nearby is a small table with a stack of menus, too, if you want to prepare by skimming a hard copy first.
Overall, though, the ordering system is pretty easy to understand once you get going. Remember we’re talking about breakfast, so there are a lot of questions to answer: how do you want your eggs? Bacon or sausage? Coffee or cappuccino or espresso?
After you order, your attention is directed to two pick-up windows – one for food and one for drinks. Each one has a screen over it where you can track your order’s readiness. We went and found a seat and then I popped back up to grab our drinks: orange juice, hot chocolate, and espresso.
And then it was only a few minutes later that my name jumped to the top of the list and our order was out.
The dining room is bright and open, with some booths against the back wall, a long raised table, and a number of four-tops organized throughout. Pretty neutral colors besides the appropriate accents of white and yellow.
Owen ordered a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash browns, bacon, and toast. Even though we’re in home fries territory, I always prefer hash browns. Better texture, nicer crunch to them, easier to mix with a broken egg yolk.
Will chose the pancakes, which he customized with bananas and chocolate chips.
And I settled on an everything’s-included dish called Uncle Moose. Years ago, I met with a group of guys regularly every Friday morning at the Scrambler’s (formerly Scrambler Marie’s) at Polaris, and one of our favorite dishes was the Uncle Moose’s Manhandler, a giant skillet of hash browns, cheese, eggs, onions, bacon, sausage, diced ham, and a couple eggs on top. The Manhandler has been adapted to a still-filling, but more manageable size, here.
The breakfasts at City Egg are pretty straightforward but easy to like, and you can customize to your heart’s content. The whole ordering process is simple and the service was attentive. It’s well worth checking out, and I’m curious to see how this new concept takes off.
