Restaurant Review: Duck confit for breakfast? It's on the menu at Kenny's Southside Sandwiches

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the last in a series of reviews by Times Free Press staff writers on their favorite breakfast spots or unusual dishes they enjoy on area breakfast menus.

I mean, come on, a duck confit biscuit with house-made strawberry jam. Do I really have to say anything more?

Kenny's Southside Sandwiches on Market Street is open for breakfast and lunch. It's owned by Kenny Burnap, the longtime sous chef at St. John's, and Josh Carter, who owns that fine restaurant across the street.

I've eaten there a couple of times for breakfast, mostly just to try the duck, and several times for lunch. I returned last week for breakfast after seeing that the restaurant got a favorable review in Garden & Gun magazine. They liked the duck biscuit, too. In fact, the headline reads: Is This Chattanooga's Best Breakfast?

It's pretty doggone good, though I was a little conflicted after my last visit. More on that in a minute.

THE MENU

As stated earlier, Kenny's offers breakfast and lunch, and both are good, and the menu offers a few items that push the envelope a bit - like the duck biscuit. The Pork Belly English Muffin ($7), the Croque Madame ($9) with scrambled egg, guacamole, pico, bechamel, hash, cheddar and lettuce, and the Tofu Scramble ($9) with toast and two sides are more examples.

The Heirloom Squash Omelet is a delicious blend of lemon confit, egg, onion, arugula and goat cheese, though mine could have used a little more of the latter. It also comes with a slice of ciabatta bread.

Among the more traditional breakfast items are pancakes ($6), yogurt and granola ($4.50), gravy ($3) and grits ($3). The Hash & Eggs ($7) option can be altered by adding duck confit, pork belly, pastrami, chorizo or vegetables for an additional cost.

Since I had tried a couple of these items previously, I went big, or so I thought, and ordered the Heirloom Squash Omelet ($10). In addition to squash, it featured goat cheese, lemon confit, onion and arugula and a piece of ciabatta bread.

Here was my conflict: I tasted very little goat cheese, the eggs were not fluffy, as I've come to expect from a really good omelet, and the bread was fairly soggy with the oil in which it was toasted.

The flavor, however, was delicious. The lemon confit and squash were perfect together. So, while it didn't pass all of the sensory tests, it was really good. Hence, my conflict.

THE SERVICE

You order at the register for breakfast, and the staff has always been friendly and accommodating. I got my order to go, and the wait was hardly noticeable.

THE VERDICT

Kenny's is perhaps a little on the pricey side for an everyday breakfast run, but it is definitely worth visiting, if only to try the duck confit biscuit.

Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.