Cahawba House

Montgomery, Alabama, is not a great breakfast city, but Cahawba House, downtown, goes a long way to correct that situation. Open at 6:30 am with a menu that features a “build your own biscuit” concept, it offers homey food with a genial Dixie accent.

Built your own means that you select from a long list of things to put on or in your biscuit. There are jams and jellies, including marvelously rich and spicy house-made apple butter, as well as preserves and honey from local suppliers. Available proteins are Alabama’s own Conecuh sausage (so taut, so ecstatically spicy!), applewood smoked bacon, eggs, and a boneless fried chicken breast. To complement whatever else you choose, there are sausage gravy, a fried green tomato slice, and assorted cheeses.

I went for a regionally flavored combo, augmenting scrambled eggs with Conecuh sausage and a generous schmear of very creamy pimento cheese. A felicitous trio!

I haven’t yet had lunch at Cahawba House, where the menu lists salads, sandwiches, and a meat-and-3 plates built around chicken (roasted, BBQ’d, or fried), meat loaf, and hamburger steak.

Key lime pie, banana pudding, and strawberry shortcake are served packed into Mason jars.

(Take-out and cubside pickup are available.)