Friends dedicate themselves to finding Columbia’s best breakfast restaurants

The hunt for Columbia’s best breakfast joints has continued for 12 years for longtime friends Bobb Dixon and Rick Noble.

The two men meet once a week at 8 a.m., each keeping mental lists of the best food, the cheapest meals and the most unusual menu items.

Their breakfasts together started because they could fit an early meeting into their work day, and talking over eggs and coffee provided a good way to stay in touch and head toward the end of the week. Good friends, both of them have been involved in civic groups and issues over the years.

“We don’t try to solve the problems of the world,” Dixon said. “We just talk about what’s going on in our worlds.”

Dixon is a businessman. Noble has spent a career in nonprofit work.

Their breakfast routine has become engrained.

“Part of it is this adventure of trying to find new places,” said Noble, 66, director of Richland County First Steps. “It’s just a matter of keeping your eyes open.”

Whoever picks the restaurant picks up the tab. Responsibility shifts each week.

When one of them spots a new place, they try to get in fast, just in case it doesn’t last. Over the years, that’s been the trend, they said.

Small places with a neighborhood following seem to do best, Noble said, though there are certainly exceptions to the rule.

Each has a favorite breakfast spot for a completely different reason.

Dixon, 63 and a safety consultant, said without hesitation that his pick would be Drip. He loves the rich duck confit breakfast sandwich (not currently on the menu) and blackberry French toast.

Noble hemmed and hawed before settling on the cafeteria at Palmetto Richland Hospital, simply because it’s an unexpected place to get a great breakfast. “We’ve been to all the hospitals, and that’s the only one we’ve been back to,” he said.

“Advisedly,” Dixon added firmly.

This particular morning, they were sitting across the table from each other at Nathan’s Restaurant on Hampton Street, which they consider one of the city’s best breakfast spots. There are 35 restaurants on the list out of 154 they can remember trying.

Nathan’s has a dozen booths and tables, one of them filled by a group of men and women who seemed to have no place else they needed to be. The tables were covered by green gingham tablecloths in easy-wipe plastic.

Occasionally, someone walked by on the sidewalk, just beyond the picture window where Dixon and Noble were eating and talking. A guy in a navy insulated jacket hopped out of a van and came in for a take-out order, popping open the foam box to cover his eggs with orange hot sauce. A man in a suit ate quickly, departing without a word.

Through the comings and goings, Debbie Kaufman kept the coffee coming. She owns the restaurant, a haunt of Hootie and the Blowfish back in their college days.

Darius Rucker (“two scrambled, corned-beef hash, grits and toast”) used to live in the corner apartment, #1 right next door at the Hampton Street Apartments, Kaufman said. Back then, when the restaurant was opening for the day the band would just be getting home, so they’d stop in for breakfast.

She hasn’t seen them since they left for California. “We loved them before they became stars,” she said with a touch of wistfulness.

The connection to Hootie is part of the restaurant’s legend, something Noble mentioned when choosing to return to Nathan’s.

His friendship with Dixon began 25 years ago, when they were both involved with a bygone initiative to discourage students from dropping out of school. They discovered they were both early-morning runners who lived just seven or eight blocks from each other. They became running partners.

Their weekly breakfasts took the place of running once Noble had knee-replacement surgery, then moved to Lake Wateree.

For a time, their goal was to find the cheapest breakfasts in town. At one point, they compared them to the most expensive.

“The Sheridan,” Noble said. “White linens and the whole bit.”

“Or was it the Hilton?” Dixon said. “Ruth’s Chris, 30 bucks.”

As for special features, the brains at George’s Southside are good. Ray’s on Two Notch has the best grits. Mack’s on Laurel Street has an “incredible” fried bologna sandwich.

And the Piggly Wiggly on Beltline wins for atmosphere and selection, they said.

“If you see something on the lunch menu you want, they’ll get it for you,” Dixon added. “They do some of the best fish. Absolutely.”

The farthest they’ll routinely travel for breakfast is Mr. Bunky’s Store in Lower Richland. “We make arbitrary rules,” Dixon said. “We went to Lexington once. Decided it was too far.”

Someone dropped by the table to shake hands and talk. Then, it was time to head out to work.

Suddenly, it was 9 a.m. and the place was in a lull — except for that one table, where they were still talking over coffee.

This story was originally published February 14, 2015 at 11:02 PM with the headline "Friends dedicate themselves to finding Columbia’s best breakfast restaurants."