The Green Bay Diner Breakfast Hunt Begins - At Julie's Cafe

The diner breakfast has been a special part of my life for as long as I can remember. Whether at Denny’s or a small, local place wherever I lived, sitting down for a plate of hashbrowns and pancakes on a Saturday morning brought me back. That’s something that I haven’t tried to find in Green Bay just yet, even after all this time living here.

What makes a diner breakfast here at Eating Normal? 

Hashbrowns (or homefries), eggs, and sausage are expected at a minimum. Pancakes as an add on or base are a bonus, but we will try them at every location they are available. Many of Green Bay’s breakfast locations that I have already visited do not serve these as a single meal, but rather as ‘extras’, and will also be considered.

What About Coffee?

Green Bay is blessed with a variety of local roasters and coffee houses– this will be a separate segment. Diners aren’t best known for having amazing coffee, and therefore, we’ll look elsewhere for coffee.

Where will I be going?

Anywhere within the Green Bay Metro area that offers a diner style breakfast is a possibility. At reader suggestion, I’ll go as far as Appleton– but anything I seek out on my own will be within the Green Bay area.

We are starting with Julie’s Cafe in De Pere.

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There was a point in my life where I drove by Julie’s every single day on my way to and from work. I no longer have to go through downtown De Pere to get to work, but Julie’s has been at the front of my mind to try for breakfast for the last few weeks. Fast food breakfasts are getting expensive, and if I’m going to spend ten dollars on a breakfast, I may as well do so at a local business instead.

Julie’s Cafe has locations in all four corners of the Green Bay Metro area, making it easy to find and try no matter where you live in town. Their breakfast menu is wide and varied despite being based on many of the classic American breakfast items. All of these meals are reasonably priced in the current environment. The Meat, eggs, and potatoes plate comes in at 11 dollars during normal hours. If you’re an early bird like myself, you can get this meal for 7 dollars before 7:30 am. That’s cheaper than my Mcdonalds’ breakfast burrito and two hashbrown patties.

I set out on an unseasonably warm morning in search of this breakfast with a friend of mine. We were seated and served quickly. The waitstaff were all wonderful, exactly what you expect of a Saturday morning diner team. I felt cared for in that restaurant. Most seats in the diner were full on my arrival, but we didn’t wait for very long. The kitchen had a well established rhythm.

I’m not a scrambled eggs or sunny side up girly, so you’ll see that every place I order, I will be ordering hard fried eggs. Terrible of me, I know. These came out in perfect little circles, slightly crisp on the edges, with a cooked yolk and well seasoned whites. 

Julie’s offers home fries as well as hashbrowns, but I much prefer hashbrowns on my breakfast plate. I find a lot of variation on the cook of hashbrowns no matter where I go, and Julie’s is no exception. These had some crispy bits, but were largely a softer cook than I normally prefer. Still, the hashbrowns were well seasoned and enjoyable with a little ketchup on the side.

Julie’s also offers sausage links or sausage patties depending on your preference. These are savory breakfast sausages rather than a maple breakfast sausage like there are in some places. As far as I could tell, there was no casing. I don’t mind that at all. It provides a hand rolled texture to the links that I absolutely love.

​At Julie’s, pancakes are included as part of their traditional diner style breakfast at no additional cost. You can substitute muffin tops or toast if that is your preference. I’m choosing pancakes every time. The pancakes at Julie’s came to the table with a dappled brown surface and very fluffy interior. Add ins such as berries or chocolate chips are an option even at this level, not just when you order pancakes separately. 

I came home with more than half of my breakfast. The leftovers lent themselves to a frittata for my Sunday morning. I left a decent tip on my order, so this breakfast came out to a cost of fifteen dollars while providing more than one meal for me. For comparison, I spent almost nine dollars the day before on a sausage burrito and two hashbrowns from Mcdonalds. This easily makes Julie’s a win in the cost department. Their website claims that all ingredients are locally sourced and produced, and if that remains true, I am even more proud to spend Mcdonalds level money here for my better than Mcdonalds breakfast. 

It feels like a diner inside. The decor. The service. The white plates. It takes me right back to every little hole in the wall breakfast joint I’ve ever been to in my life. These are good memories. I don’t think I’ll ever go to Julie’s in De Pere and be met with a bad day. It’s on the short list for any day that I wake up too early for work and also don’t want to make my own breakfast. Julie’s sets the baseline expectation for all other diner breakfasts in Green Bay. We will return to this article at the end of the year to create a ranking of all diner breakfasts I’ve tried across town at the end of the year. 

Thanks to the staff at Julie’s for a delicious, memorable breakfast and for inspiring this idea in the first place.