The last few years, Chef Jeff Porter has been moving around a lot. He was getting good reviews in South Carolina when he moved back to back to his hometown of Newport, NH, and after some time working as a chef at one local golf course, he opened a food truck in Newport. After a pretty good start in the food truck, he moved to brick and mortar, moving his restaurant, Breaking Bread, into another country club, the Newport Country Club (which I’ve never been to, but it’s one of those spots that seems quite itinerant, since it’s been a good half dozen different restaurants in my years living here). Finally, a pair of storefronts on Newport’s Main Street became available next to the police station, and he moved Breaking Bread downtown. On one of our recent trips to an event in Newport, we finally had a chance to stop by and check it out.
Inside Breaking Bread, the interior has an interesting vibe. Half of the vibe is utilitarian, this isn’t a heavily renovated dining space, more focused on just basic function. Decoration-wise, I’ll get one thing out of the way, like one might expect from the name, Breaking Bread has a very strong Christian theme going on, with the general decor being around 8/10 on the “Jesus scale”. Being raised predominantly in Presbyterian and United Church of Christ churchs, heck, our church potlucks weren’t even this decorated. But, to take a step back, I think I’ve been in several other restaurants of different world religions, and the staff didn’t seem to proselytize, so I’m generally okay with it. And heck, Newport has been dying for another decent breakfast option since Country Kitchen closed up a few years ago. So, after looking over the menu (on which most dishes are humorously-named after either religious theme’s or Newport-local themes), and ordering up at the counter, we settled in for breakfast into one of the booths with old church pews as benches.
Carol got the daily special, which was tiramisu pancakes in a short stack topped with blackberries and maple. I actually liked what I sampled of these, while a bit sweet, these had a good crisp to them, and really did invoke the overall flavor profile of a tiramisu. So they’ve got the basic griddle skills going strong, and I wouldn’t hesitate to try other pancakes of theirs.
I went for the “Southern-baptized” chicken and waffles, a pickle-brined fried chicken breast with a pearl sugar waffle, bacon gravy and eggs, served over their “smashbrowns” potatoes. Working my way from top to bottom, the fried chicken breast was quite good: a nice brine with some slight heat, a good overall texture, and a nice flaky and not overly-heavy breading made for one of the better chicken breasts I’ve had recently. The waffle was a decent Belgian-style waffle with a good sugar crust to it. The bacon gravy was rich and flavorful, and the eggs decently scrambled.
Overall, I liked Breaking Bread. The chef has some talent, the prices are good, and it’s a much-needed new breakfast joint around Newport. And Chef Porter does a lot of community outreach, for a bonus.
