NOTE: This restaurant is now closed.
What do you notice about the plate above? What you SHOULD notice is that everything is on the same plate – no side dish for the grits. Gene’s is a true southern restaurant, and grits are integral to the meal, not tucked away on their own. Grits are the glue that hold a southern breakfast together.
I started eating breakfast at Gene’s over twenty years ago. Gene’s offers a meat-n-three for lunch, and has a dinner menu, but I’ve never tried any other meal there. Why tamper with my concept of perfection? They have maintained a simple consistency in their fare since 1957. I don’t get here as much, now that we live further from downtown.
Historic photos of Greenville cover the walls, and patrons who were around when the photos were taken fill the booths. The occasional visitor is treated as warmly as the regulars.
Greenville is blessed with many excellent places to eat breakfast, but Gene’s holds its own against the more well-known venues such as Stax and Stax Omega. The prices are certainly better. The plate you see above, along with toast and endless coffee, set me back a whopping $3.50. I tipped the waitress $2 just because I felt guilty. Even then I came out ahead of those joints that charge $2 for coffee and another $3 for some kind of muffin.
