Unscrambing the Egg The Original Egg

It was 1985.

Jim Palermo had been putting in long hours at his Italian restaurant and he missed his family—which at the time included wife, Melissa; 2-year-old son, Adam; and 4-monthold daughter, Ashley.

“I wanted to be home more often,” says Palermo of the family decision to switch paths to go from serving chicken parmesan to flipping pancakes.

“We opened The Broken Egg on a whim and a prayer when a space opened up on Siesta Key,” he says.

With only one other place serving breakfast at the time—a greasy spoon diner named The Buttery—the Palermos recall a much different Siesta Key. It was still the sleepy beach town where Melissa had grown up.

At a mere 800 square feet, the original The Broken Egg, located on Avenida Messina, seated 18 people and lacked proper restaurant equipment.

“I had two griddles I cooked on,” says Jim Palermo. “The hardware store always had a backup ready too in case I burnt one.”

Despite an obvious learning curve and some necessary ingenuity—including poaching eggs in a microwave—the concept of a simple breakfast joint worked.

The Broken Egg quickly became the community’s beloved breakfast café, a laid-back family establishment to rendezvous with neighbors.

The Palermos spent three years in the first location before migrating down the street into a larger space at Avenida Madera (now the Sun Garden Café). The new space allowed them to install full-scale kitchen equipment and add lunch to their repertoire.

“We had an open kitchen, so Jim could see them walk in and would start cooking their meal,” says Melissa.

The menu continued to evolve to include Melissa’s freshly baked items and to-go lunches as well as specials—which the Palermos credit to regular customers who “liked to push the limits,” by customizing their meals. It’s also where the Broken Egg potato casserole was born.

“It took, like, 10 versions to hit the winner,” says Jim. “It was adapted from either a Junior League cookbook or a Campbell’s Soup can.”

By the early ’90s, the Palermos knew The Broken Egg could handle another expansion but ultimately decided it was time to sell and move on. The Broken Egg changed hands in 1991 from the Palermos to Mart Solu, who then sold to Bob Kirscher in 1997.

During his ownership, Kirscher expanded to two additional locations. The second The Broken Egg opened in 2006 in Lakewood Ranch; the third in 2010 off Clark Road. Throughout the expansion Kirscher maintained the café’s high level of customer service and became known for community outreach and fundraising alongside friend and Broken Egg regular Dick Vitale. In 2013, it was time for The Broken Egg to change hands once more.

Enter major confusion about the fate of community’s longtime and beloved café.

Kirscher sold The Broken Egg’s Siesta Key and Lakewood Ranch locations to a corporate restaurant group based in Louisiana—the largest franchisee of Another Broken Egg Cafes. The Clark Road location, however, stayed with longtime employee Dawn Hair, who says she had ownership, albeit a small portion, in that location from when she’d helped launch it.

“When Bob and I opened this location 10 years ago, he made a promise to me that if he sold, he would allow me first purchasing rights,” says Hair, a single mother of two who moved to the area from New Jersey 29 years ago. “He made my dreams come true so my kids would never have to worry.”

Echoing the motivation of Jim Palermo three decades earlier, Hair says it was a lack of time with her children that prompted the move from managing a bar at night to working for Kirscher at The Broken Egg.

“I wasn’t home, I wasn’t present for my kids,” she says. “I couldn’t be the mom that I wanted to be.”

Even with the decision to keep the Clark location a close relative to the original establishment, Hair was not free to operate as recognizable The Broken Egg. Along with the other two locations, the corporation had bought the rights and the licensing to the name.

“They gave me three options,” Hair said. “I could become a franchise of Another Broken Egg. I could keep The Broken Egg name and pay the company a 2% royalty fee. Or I could change the name and it couldn’t include ‘broken’ and ‘egg’ together.”

Despite a generous offer for the sale of the third location, Hair chose to change the name.

“After everything that I’d worked for, they weren’t anything that I wanted to be.” The Original Egg, as it is now, was a natural fit. “One day I woke up and thought ‘We are the Original Egg,’” she says. “It made sense.”

The change cost upwards of $30,000 but allowed Hair to maintain control over the superior level of customer service originating with the Palermos and carried on through Solu and her mentor Kirscher.

“People can go anywhere for breakfast,” says Hair. “What separates us from them is the customer service and staff .”

The Original Egg’s mission is not only to serve good food but to treat each customer with the utmost care and kindness.

“You never know when someone walks in what they have been through or what took place before they got there,” says Hair, who speaks of family members returning restaurant year after year in memory of lost loved ones.

“They feel like it’s home. They can connect with a part of them they lost and can talk about with the staff .”

Hair maintains a staff of 27, which includes several high schoolers and a special-needs employee. There is extremely low staff turnover thanks to a family-like atmosphere and high level of respect from the top down.

“I am no better than [my staff ],” says Hair. “I bus tables. I wash dishes. I bring your food to you,” she says. “I do whatever is needed.” Hair’s general manager has been with her for 12 years.

“I try to take care of them and in turn they care about the restaurant,” she says.

Many of the recipes from the original Broken Egg still remain on the menu (yes, that includes the famous cheesy potato casserole) and they are known for their skillets and Eggs Benedict variations. The lunch menu is diverse, containing some creative sandwiches alongside the popular turkey avocado and chicken pesto club.

The Original Egg walls are filled with original artwork for sale from at least six local artists—including a 12-year-old who just sold her second painting.

Continuing what she’d observed with Kirscher, community outreach also remains strong for Hair, with service and donations to many charitable organizations throughout Sarasota (Hair is known to distribute trays of cookies and coupons to Sarasota County elementary schools as well).

“If everyone could help the community a little more we’d be such a different place,” says Hair.

Although she still has to explain the difference between her restaurant and the other establishments, Hair hopes people recognize The Original Egg is NOT affiliated with Another Broken Egg Cafes and, despite a name change, the lineage of the original The Broken Egg lives on at her Clark Road establishment.

> The Original Egg is open seven days a week from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. It’s located at 4031 Clark Rd in the Clark Road Expo Plaza. theoriginalegg.com

> Jim and Melissa Palermo now own and operate the Oasis Café on S Osprey Avenue.

What’s in a name…

To come up with the name “The Broken Egg” for their new breakfast café concept in 1985 (pre-internet), Jim and Melissa Palermo used a time-tested resource. “We sat in that library for hours going through the classifieds,” says Melissa. They ultimately found inspiration in California’s yellow pages, where Melissa says she knew they’d find a “cute and clever” name.

The Legend of Dickie V

The Broken Egg’s Siesta Key location was known as a regular hangout of Hall of Fame ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale, who could often be seen signing autographs there. But despite rumors, Vitale never crossed the boundary from customer to owner. According to The Original Egg owner Dawn Hair, he can, however, be credited with the nudge to friend Bob Kirscher to open a Lakewood Ranch location, after Vitale relocated to the LWR.