By: Mitch Jaugstetter
James Beard Award winner Chef John Currence has opened a new location of his Big Bad Breakfast restaurant at The Pointe on 30A in Inlet Beach.
With two other locations in Birmingham, Ala., and Oxford, Miss., Currence is no rookie when it comes to breakfast food.
“I had the opportunity to come here and fulfill something that has bothered me for years, which is the struggle to find really good food near vacation resorts,” Currence said.
With Big Bad Breakfast, Currence is trying to give proper respect to what he considers the most important meal of the day. Currence has been passionate about finding good breakfast food since he was young and then continued on as he moved into the restaurant industry.
“Nobody in the chef’s world was diving into breakfast and giving it the same amount of attention as they were to lunch and dinner,” said Currence. Big Bad Breakfast makes everything fresh, and uses minimal products from a truck.
“We grind our corn for grits, make our own biscuits and jam, cure our bacon, grind our own sausage. We do everything from scratch.”
Breakfast is the restaurant’s specialty, with about 70 percent of sales coming from good, old-fashioned breakfast plates. The ambience of the new location is decidedly beachy, with a comfortable, laid-back feel.
The menu at the Inlet Beach location will be similar to his other locations, except it will be lighter and more stylized towards a beach crowd.
“The poolside menu will be different,” said Currence. “I don’t envision people dying to eat scrambled eggs, biscuits and toast by the pool. We’ll have things that are more snack friendly. We’ll still have our twist to all of them.”
Currence is optimistic about the new location and was excited about the opportunity of working with The Pointe. “It’s an interesting spot that’s easy to get to with a lot of foot traffic.”
Mitch Jaugstetter is a Summer Intern at The 30A Company.
