Wildwood, NJ: For a change of pace, the ‘Breakfast with Dave’ entourage descended upon the Midtown Diner on Atlantic Avenue in Wildwood to celebrate their weekly breakfast extravaganza. This was a first for the group at this establishment, and the occasion was highlighted by another, very important ‘first’ for the group. Joining Dave Smith, Paul Mathis, Eddie Jurewicz, Jim Colubiale, John Wilsey and Ed Sherretta on this first Thursday morning in March. Lynn Massimiano broke the gender barrier and became the very first female to sit and have ‘Breakfast with Dave’, which has always asked the question: “Should a woman marry a man with a wooden leg, or should she just break it off?”
The menu offered the standard breakfast fare, but the portions were very much more than standard. For instance, “The Royal Flush” consisted of 2 eggs, 2 strips of bacon, sausage, and two very large pancakes for $7.99, which proved to be well worth the price. The accent here was on the service as our beautiful Hungarian waitress kept our coffee and tea cups filled until we asked her to stop.
The conversations around the table ranged from diabetes to Howard Stern and were not “toned down” because of the mixed nature of the table. We discovered that the Thyroid is Dave’s second favorite gland. We also all agreed that Howard Stern was much better on the radio than on TV. The group was also reminded of two things that really didn’t happen last week. The first was that Johnny Callison, the Phillies All-Star right fielder of the early 60’s, was not at the Joe Peppitone autograph signing that Paul had taken his devout Yankee fan wife Landa to one day, and Eddie J’s telling Joe Peppitone that he hated him when he meet the Yankee first baseman after having to work all summer to earn the money to buy a Joe Peppitone glove was also overlooked in last week’s minutes. However, Peppitone was so taken by Eddie’s comment that he then included Eddie in all the promo pics for that particular autograph signing event!
We were all a little embarrassed by the fact that none of us, except for Ed Sherretta, attended John Wilsey’s retirement dinner over the past weekend. However, John, himself, did not decide to go until the last minute. At any rate, they both agreed that the dinner at The Grand in Cape May was excellent! And so, we can now officially wish John a fond “Aloha”, both for his retirement and the fact that he is heading to Hawaii’s north shore for 17 days!
As we chewed our way through the omelets, eggs (and egg whites), french toast, pancakes, bacon and scrapple, the discussion took a turn to burning calories, that is working out. John brought up the fact that he has turned to “ultimate fighting” workouts to keep in shape for surfing, which prompted Eddie J. to disclose that his son Chris, out in California, has started to use boxing as a workout preference. Although Chris has not ‘sparred’ with anyone yet, we all agreed that his new nickname should be “Sugar Ray Jay”.
As we sipped on our last cups of coffee and tea, even the owner of George’s in Cape May, Mikey’s father, entered the Midtown for breakfast, which suggests that the Midtown Diner is indeed a well kept secret as far as good food and service is concerned. The cost per person for this week’s feast was $12 per person which is about the average for a ‘Breakfast with Dave’ soiree, and a great time was had by all.
-JIM C.
Midtown Diner on Facebook
[...] The first female ʻBreakfast with Daveʼ celebrant. “Day of Firsts at the Midtown Diner” [...]