Well, menus plural — there’s the regular one and a gallery of chalkboards behind the counter touting specials and “secret” items. Are they secret if they’re on a blackboard? Do you care as long as you can add smoked pork belly to pretty much anything?
The 100-year-old, three-generation McIntosh Farm opened its store and restaurant 19 years ago, and it’s earned a stalwart following for breakfast and lunch.
Owner Danielle McIntosh is partial to the pulled house-smoked chicken with caramelized onion served with a drop biscuit and doused in sausage gravy. “It’s like a deconstructed chicken pot pie,” she says. Husband Clayton McIntosh is a fan, too, but the scratch pancakes — moist and bouncy — eek out the win for him.
Fans of chicken fried steak will be pleased with the extra mile head chef Aaron Richey has gone for a surprisingly tender and flavorful version of the classic, smoking tri-tip and hand-dipping for a light crust. The crunch of the accompanying hashbrowns, soft as mashed potato in the center, raise the bar, too. Richey’s smoked meat — ham this time — adds to the eggs Benedict, which picks up a hint of heat from Hungarian paprika. Naturally, the eggs are farm fresh with deep yellow yolks. “We have people who bring ’em in giant baskets,” says Danielle.
The very name of the deceptively modest looking Trainwreck breakfast burrito is both warning and enticement. Those hash browns are in there, along with bacon, sausage, eggs, cheese and more of that gravy. You may want to share your first time around and work your way up to a whole one.
Come early if you want to snag a springy doughnut sweetened solely by homemade glazes. The maple with bacon goes fast, as do the jammy huckleberry glazed ones, dotted with bits of locally harvested berries. Fresh fruit shows up in the day’s mimosas and lemonade, as well, while the Bloody Mary specials might be garnished with homemade pickled jalapeño or skewered hunks of the aforementioned smoked pork belly.
And if, with all those options, you still want to customize, just ask. Danielle says they’re all for adding and swapping gravy, sides, toppings and the like. That may be the secret to the menu. She chuckles and waves a hand. “You can do whatever you want.”
This article appears in Humboldt Insider Fall/Winter 2024.
