a gift
Good Eggs started with a friendship. The late great Fred Alley, playwright of American Folklore Theater fame, threatened me. “If I didn’t find something use full to do with myself, he would.”
At the time I was describing myself as “between projects”. Previously, I had been driving a bus full of whatever college kids I could con into paying for gas on any adventure they could think of. The bus could sleep a dozen people and it criss-crossed the country for several years with much mayhem before the brakes failed and disaster was narrowly averted. Most of those years, and many before, I had been waiting tables to pay for that adventure and others like it. Now I was facing thirty without a career. It was Fred who thought Door County had a unfilled niche for a low priced breakfast place.
My many years of restaurant experience had taught me much, primarily not to open one. If I learned any thing from the bus fiasco it was that I didn’t know what I was doing. The chance to partner with Fred, some one who obviously knew what he was doing, was irresistible. There was more to it than simply desiring a legitimate expectation for success. Those plays of his were telling meaningful stories and his theater was catering to broad base of visitors. He described it as egalitarian and I wanted to be like that. Fred Alley was a good egg, and I wanted to be one too.
Fred had the money and I had the time. He would invite his audiences to breakfast and I would make it. One thing I didn’t want to do was a lot of dishes. Serving breakfast in a basket doesn’t seem like a natural, but the twelve inch tortilla had proved its versatility to me through college and the Good Eggs format was settled upon. We scouted locations, talked with vendors, and on April first of 2001, we signed our business partnership papers.
On May 1st at the age of thirty-eight Fred Alley passed away. In that one month Fred had secured our lease, registered our LLC, obtained our restaurant license and convinced the powers that be in Ephraim to allow us to open a burrito restaurant, things I still could probably not do today. Good Eggs is and forever will be a gift to me from Fred. Without Fred driving traffic, Good Eggs got off to a slow start but I will never forget the generous spirit in which people came to give it a try.
After 11 wonderful seasons, Good Eggs is proud to continue offering an affordable, family-friendly atmosphere for casual dining along Ephraim's beautiful shores. Stop in to see us May through October!
the stories of good eggs
Good Eggs, LLC © Copyright 2010
Fred Alley and Joel Bremer