Breakfast Bar Ideas

Some breakfast bar ideas at different price points, luxury levels or logistics levels. My idea is hotels could use this to create something that works for them but there's no reason someone couldn't borrow ideas from it for a restaurant, the break room at work or some other scenario. 

Very Basic: "Just add hot water"

If you can do coffee, you likely can easily add a few other things where you just add hot water, such as tea, instant oatmeal, instant grits and instant hot cocoa.

Some places do milk and cold cereal and I wonder why that is. 

Milk has to be kept cold. You need a fridge for that. Cold cereal seems like a more burdensome and less satisfying option to me than instant hot cereal which can be offered in a situation with only shelf stable options and a carafe of hot water.

Do make sure there is hot water available and it is clearly marked. One of my worst breakfast experiences was where I couldn't find the hot water at a hotel breakfast and accidentally added coffee to my instant oatmeal.

I do not personally like creamer. I would love to see something I've never seen offered: Have powdered milk available for coffee, tea or hot cereal. Put it in a dispenser and clearly mark it. 

You may need to experiment with different dispensers, especially in humid weather. Maybe use a small one that needs to be refilled with one or two packets daily rather than shooting for a week's supply. 

Creamer is a "food product" and not real food. Powdered milk is real food and shelf stable. Keep offering creamer if that makes business sense to you, but also please add powdered milk in a dispenser for people like me who would add milk but won't use creamer.

I don't really understand why it's common to have a fridge with milk in it and cold cereal. 

Milk doesn't keep well, a small fridge countless people have access to is a germ hazard and maintenance challenge because of it, and if I wanted cold cereal while traveling, why wouldn't I bring my own? 

That seems like not something I need supplied. You can buy individual serving size boxes of cold cereal with instructions on how to use the box as a bowl and you can buy shelf stable irradiated milk in little containers. If I'm a huge fan of cold cereal, I could pick my own favorite brand of cold breakfast cereal and toss it in my suitcase. 

When instant breakfast was my thing, I traveled with irradiated milk and instant breakfast or powdered milk and instant breakfast. So I'm fairly certain if cold cereal was something I desperately wanted for breakfast, I would arrange my own while traveling rather than let you decide for me which cereal I'm eating.

I do not see this as particularly appealing to the customer nor low cost and easy for the hotel. How much milk gets poured out after it spoils? What about complaints of food poisoning when it goes bad?

This really doesn't make sense to me as some supposedly easy answer "because it's a cold breakfast without having to cook." 

Powdered milk is shelf stable and doesn't have all this chemical garbage like creamer has AND doesn't need to be refrigerated. A cup of hot water, two packets of hot cocoa and a little powdered milk makes some good hot cocoa. 

Or instant flavored oatmeal and a little powdered milk. I would think that's logistically easier than a refrigerator of fresh milk for cold cereal and also a better meal than cold cereal. 

I'm guessing powdered milk probably makes more financial sense if it reduces waste from spoiled milk being poured out, plus powdered milk should be generally cheaper even before accounting for waste and refrigeration costs. Last I checked, some people bought powdered milk as more economical than fresh milk.

Fridge and Toaster

Juices, like orange juice and apple juice. (Though in practice, these are frequently served from a special dispenser. I have no idea why.)

Yogurt.

Cream cheese.

Boiled eggs.

Real butter, not margarine.

If you have a fridge and toaster, you can potentially have instructions for making an egg sandwich. Do some experimenting and come up with some shelf stable or refrigerated items that would pair well with toast and a cold boiled egg.

If you have a toaster, don't just do white bread and wheat bread. Have those available but also include something like raisin bread, bagels or English muffins. (A toasted bagel with cream cheese is a fine travel breakfast.)

If you have a toaster and assorted bread options, make sure to have jelly packets and other shelf stable condiments (honey? salsa for your egg sandwich?) and plastic utensils to spread it. 

You could also potentially supply various "toaster breakfast" options, like frozen waffles and frozen pastries. Add appropriate condiments, like syrup packets.

Elaborate 

I've seen all of the following at hotels. Many of these require separate appliances, like a waffle maker. This is always in addition to the aforementioned basics.

Fresh waffles 

Scrambled eggs

Mini one-egg omelettes, plain or stuffed

Crisp bacon

Potatoes with onions and peppers

Bagels with cream cheese

Gravy

Biscuits

I've seen scrambled eggs and bacon at hotels and I've seen biscuits and gravy at hotels. I've never seen a hotel provide biscuits where you could either top them with gravy or make a bacon and egg breakfast sandwich. But it seems like with a little planning, you could make all that possible. 

For omelettes, I would offer at least two and probably three types: plain (egg only), with cheese and one with something fancier, like bacon, cheese and chives. Consider the local food culture and clientele when deciding your fancy recipe. 

Potatoes with onions and peppers is awesome and rarely offered. If you have those hot food server things standard at most hotels offering hot breakfast, consider adding it.

Food Focused

Breakfast is about the food. Most hotels seem to have too many tables at their breakfast bar. I am annoyed when it's all lovely countertops and beautiful furniture and a zillion plastic spoons and basically toast and bad coffee. 

I will eat oatmeal or yogurt if there are no hot foods I like. I never eat cold cereal and only eat plain toast or cold pastry in desperation. I'm happy to have toasted raisin bread, bagels with cream cheese or a toasted English muffin with real butter. 

I don't really see a good reason to supply things like muffins. If it's not a frozen toaster pastry (with toaster to heat it) or something like that, if cold muffins are my favorite breakfast item, I can have my own shelf stable muffins in my luggage and I'm happy to grab something like that out of my bag and pair it with hot coffee if hot coffee is all that's offered.

If it doesn't add value above something I could pick myself and stuff in my luggage, I don't really want to see it offered. Because MY money pays for that one way or another. 

YOU deciding for me which crappy shelf stable muffin or pop tart to make available adds nothing to my life. I would rather pick my own myself at the store if that's what I'm having for breakfast at your hotel.

But I'm not going to carry a complete pantry of hot cocoa packets, powdered milk etc, in my luggage. Shelf stable items of that sort plus hot water, plastic utensils and assorted condiments strikes me as low cost on your end and high value on mine. 

If it helps me get an appealing breakfast while keeping my hotel bill reasonable AND keeping things CLEAN, that's a hotel I'm likely to return to if I'm in the area again.