Terrace Café scores with early risers 

Steak and eggs is the quintessential American guy breakfast -- or at least it has been in my testosterone-driven house, which is all male except me, the cat and the dog. Many breakfast joints, though, offer an inexpensive cut of beef which is then overcooked and made tough. In this day of culinary deflation, restaurants are challenged to produce creative and inventive dishes while trying to keep prices down even as fewer diners eat out at dinner.

Yet many people are dining earlier in the day, eschewing the bigger dinner checks and looking for deals. This thought was on my mind one morning when I was seated at a comfortable table in Terrace Café.

Stewart and Cindy Penick opened Terrace last September. Anyone who has known their nephew and managing partner Jacob Penick for any amount of time has known him to be a food aficionado -- the kind of person who would spend his last buck at a great restaurant and who has taken extensive notes on the restaurants he has visited. Penick graduated from Johnson & Wales University in the last culinary class from Charleston and the first graduating class in Charlotte and has worked in SouthPark restaurants. In the real world, though, the adage says experience is the best but hardest teacher: first you take the test, then you learn the lesson.

Dinner, as some area restaurateurs are finding out, can be dicey in this economic environment. But any SouthParker worth his gourmet salt knows that a decent place for breakfast and brunch is always welcomed and generally busy. If you don't believe me, try Terrace for Sunday brunch. During the week, tables are easier and the service more solicitous. The interior at Terrace has a modern, homey feel with yellows and earth tones. A brace of sconce branches softly illuminate the walls, which are intersected with large expanses of windows. The namesake terrace expands across the upper back wall. Wood-toned tables are set with fun wavy glasses and a sticky note pad, a convenience for breakfast business meetings. Much of the interior design was done by Cindy Penick.

At the helm of the kitchen is Executive Chef Thomas Kerns. The menu, especially the dinner menu, puts forward sourcing transparency (as in Eden Farm pork tenderloin). Many ingredients are local while the beef, pork, chicken and veal are organic and hormone-free. The coffee has a connection to Stewart Penick's other business, which sells products to Dominican Republic coffee producers: Terrace uses the coffee produced by these growers.

Many of Terrace's signature items -- like the jam which changes seasonally -- are Penick family recipes. Currently the mix is a yummy blueberry, strawberry and peach. The Southern-styled house-made breakfast sausage with the perquisite hit of brown sugar can make even the crustiest pork aficionado smile.

In fact, this attention to detail makes breakfast successful at Terrace. At many places, breakfast consists of watery coffee, frozen biscuits, plastic containers of Smucker's jellies, and a stack of pancakes. Quality ingredients cost more, and that cost is reflected in the prices at Terrace. But $15 buys two perfectly grilled three-ounce Montana Ranch (certified Piedmontese beef) steak medallions presented appealing enough with a delicious stack of shredded potatoes, and eggs any style.

To me, though, breakfast is about biscuits. Terrace's biscuits are Penick's grandmother's recipe and have the option of being served with honey (not local, but I can wish). One bite will take you back to your own grandmother's breakfast table, if you were lucky enough to have a Southern grandmother.

Omelets, breakfast foot soldiers, are airy while the densely flavored stone-ground grits affirm my belief that, yes, cheeseless grits have a future. (If you like cheese in your grits, order the shrimp and grits.)

Animal-shaped pancakes are featured on the kids' breakfast menu; Wagyu burgers and corned beef on marbled rye star at lunch. In the evening, the restaurant morphs into a dinner place with a focused menu featuring a dinner-styled steak and egg: 8-ounce Montana Ranch steak filet, with crawfish, leek bacon and smoked Gouda pancakes, a poached egg and black truffle butter ($29). Prices for dinner entrées range from $19 for fried chicken to $30 for a maple and horseradish veal chop. The menu also denotes dishes approved by the Harris and Harris Express YMCA nutritionists.

In truth, too many places serve mediocre breakfast. Terrace Café is not one. Here, attention is paid to detail, the quality of ingredients and flavor profiles -- a terrific treat in the morning.

Know of a restaurant that has opened, closed, or should be reviewed? Does your restaurant or shop have news, menu changes, and new additions to staff or building, upcoming cuisine or wine events? To be included in our online blog, Eat My Charlotte, send information to Tricia via e-mail (no attachments, please): tricia.childress@creativeloafing.com.