I have had three spe­cial meals in the last cou­ple of years, but only two real­ly count.

The one that does­n’t count was when I treat­ed myself to a Japan­ese Wagyu filet at Hyde Park Steak­house in Colum­bus last year. It was a irre­spon­si­bly expen­sive meal, but I don’t regret try­ing out one of the most rare steaks at least once in my life.

The first one that counts is a break­fast I ate with my son at a small town din­er some­where in Penn­syl­va­nia when I drove him to camp in Philadel­phia in 2022. We left Cleve­land around 0200 and as the sun was com­ing over the hills, I searched for a decent break­fast spot and explic­it­ly want­ed one that was in a small town. I can­not remem­ber nor find the small town, nor the din­er on the map these days, but it was north-north­west of Philly by about 90 min­utes. My go-to din­er break­fast is two eggs over easy, bacon, and wheat toast, and it’s most­ly the only time I take cream and sug­ar in my cof­fee.

The bacon, eggs, toast, and but­ter were all local­ly pro­duced, the cof­fee was hot and strong, the sausage that my son got was local as well, and the lit­tle spot was full of locals talk­ing about local news. Its about locale, but this meal was sacra­men­tal­ly good. I doubt I’ll ever have as good again. I think we were out of there under $20 includ­ing tip.

The sec­ond meal that counts, anoth­er one with my son, is a BLT I had at a Kather­ine’s Restau­rant, a din­er in Mid­dle­burg Heights. There was noth­ing at all spe­cial about this BLT oth­er than it was per­fect. Stan­dard white bread, stan­dard bacon, stan­dard let­tuce, stan­dard toma­to, stan­dard may­on­naise. A true crafts­man can make beau­ty out of basics. The bread was per­fect­ly toast­ed, with the exact­ly right of may­on­naise spread even­ly on it. The romaine was extreme­ly fresh, and was all sweet leaf. The fresh toma­to was sliced thin­ly but scal­loped to add some den­si­ty. The bacon was grid­dle fried, crisply ridged, and piled 2 inch­es thick. A bite was the full vari­ety of crunch and so per­fect­ly pro­por­tioned as to be the pla­ton­ic form of BLT.

I like local din­ers, and I like going to them with my son.