Welcome to Food/Drink Week at Milwaukee Record, brought to you by Third Space Brewing. From May 12 through May 19, belly up and enjoy adventurous, odd, and elaborate coverage of all things edible and drinkable in Milwaukee and beyond.
Today marks the conclusion of Milwaukee Record‘s Food/Drink Week. Over a span of seven days, we managed 11 food-focused articles that included stuff like a long-overdue revisit to The Chocolate Factory, a celebration of a neighborhood’s chicken wing prowess, a trip to eat pasties and look at rock art up in Tigerton, a tribute to bars and restaurants we’ve lost, comparing two local pizza places with “Scotty” in their name, and more. It’s been fun, but it’s time to get back to something resembling “normal” for us.
Before we put this theme week to bed until next spring, I wanted to say goodbye with one more bit of semi-local dining-related fun. I recently decided I was going to build and attempt to eat “The Perfect Egg Bite.” For those of you who are unfamiliar (likely the vast majority of you), The Perfect Egg Bite, is a concept that was featured on the second episode in Season 1 of Joe Pera Talks With You, a charming and offbeat Adult Swim series that was set in the U.P. but primarily filmed in and around Milwaukee over its memorable three-season run.
As you see in the above clip, the breakfast creation is the brainchild of Pera’s quirky neighbor Mike Melsky (played by Conner O’Malley). Over the weekend, I decided I wouldn’t just try to recreate this obscure breakfast combination…I would do it in the very same place Melsky tried to.
As you may or may not know, the episode—called “Joe Pera Takes You To Breakfast”—was filmed at Copper Kitchen Restaurant on Milwaukee’s south side.
Though I haven’t paid Copper Kitchen a visit since shortly after the episode first aired, I was glad to see this timeless family diner hadn’t changed at all in the last five-plus years when I returned over the weekend.
I briefly considered making Melsky’s Perfect Egg Bite in the exact place where he did so on camera, but I (who was dining solo because I wouldn’t want anyone to accompany me as I did something so weird) didn’t want to take up a spot with enough seating to accommodate nine people. Instead, I sat at a booth a few feet away.
I sipped some black coffee as I looked over the menu, eventually settling on the Two Eggs And Breakfast Meat meal ($10) that had all the necessary ingredients…plus some breakfast meat. It’s not part of the Egg Bite, but I went with the sausage links in case you were curious. As Melsky’s instructions called for, I got rye toast, hash browns, and over easy eggs. I also requested grape jelly and ketchup. With the ingredients before me, I would have exactly two chances to construct and consume a Perfect Egg Bite.
The toast arrived already buttered, which saved me a step. Though the triangularly sliced toast differed from the uncut toast featured in the episode, I really only needed a big enough surface area to fit one unbroken egg yolk. So I made it work. I put the triangles together again and applied the “purple jelly.”
Next came the unifying layer of hash browns.
Followed by the ketchup, squirted in a “W” shape for optimal coverage and, yes, because it stands for WASSSSSUP!
Finally, I carefully applied the over easy egg. I foolishly forgot to specify I wanted the eggs sunny side up to match Melsky’s version, but I figured an over easy egg was the most important part. Also, you might notice this egg is cut down to pretty much just be the yolk portion. To be honest, the photos you see are from my second attempt because my previous bite was unsuccessful, as I didn’t get the entire unbroken yolk in my mouth in a single bite.
Much like Melsky, I needed a win. I couldn’t spill another drop of yolk onto a Copper Kitchen platter. I said a very quiet “I love you, babe” to nobody in particular before stretching my jaw, shoving in a toast corner, and trying to do what Joe Pera’s fictional neighbor never could.
It was a success! I had The Perfect Egg Bite. Also a success was the clashing flavors that somehow worked extremely well together. The sweetness of the jelly, the savory ketchup, the array of textures, and the warm coating of butter and egg yolk strangely complemented each other a lot better than I had anticipated. Hey, maybe Mike Melsky was onto something…in literally just this one way.
In closing, Joe Pera Talks With You was a wonderful show that I miss dearly, Copper Kitchen is a great local diner I should visit more often, The Perfect Egg Bite is better than expected, and thanks for reading our Food/Drink Week coverage. Now back to our regular programing—or as regular as Milwaukee Record can get.
