Sandpiper Cafe, Juneau, Alaska

Nancy and I recently went to Juneau as a step (#49!) in our project of completing AVA 10k (6.2 mile) walks in all 50 state capitals. The AVA is a network of volunteers all over the US who map out 10k walks in their cities, towns, and state, local, and national parks — you name it. The local volunteers tend to route you by the highlights of their communities. It’s a wonderful way to get to know a city, and we’ve enjoyed all our walks so far. Well, almost all. So to Juneau we went.

Getting to Juneau was an adventure. We were all packed and ready to go when Alaska Air emailed us a change in schedule that had our flight from Dulles to Seattle arriving 40 minutes after our Seattle to Juneau flight had left. We called American Express and they managed to get us a flight out of National that made the connection with ease. As we were getting into our Uber to National, Alaska Air emailed that they had just been kidding. We ignored them and duly arrived in Juneau shortly after midnight local time (4:00 am Eastern). After collecting our baggage and more rigamarole, we managed to locate our Turo rental car and get to our remote Airbnb. We were in bed by 2:00 am, 6:00 am Eastern, our usual time to wake up and roll over for another hour.

We sprang from bed early enough for all the needful and out the door by 8:00 am, and drove into Juneau to fuel up before starting our walk. The obvious choice was The Sandpiper Cafe at 429 W Willoughby Avenue in downtown Juneau. The Sandpiper had been a huge hit since it opened in 2006, enough so that a second Sandpiper Cafe opened in Vashon, WA, in 2020.

Inside the Sandpiper is clean, roomy, and up to date looking, and it’s very popular. We were lucky enough to be seated right away, the usual line having been deterred, perhaps, by rain and the early hour. We sat and studied the extensive menu and daily specials over tea (Nancy) and coffee (me), and ordered.

Nancy, thinking a la carte, chose the grilled Yukon gold potatoes ($5.99) and two eggs over easy ($4.99). That was translated as the Basic Breakfast Plate ($12.99), which meant an option of toast — choice of sourdough, wheat, or rye, or a biscuit — which Nancy didn’t want, but chose rye. Here it is

Those are beautiful eggs, all but perfect. And Nancy liked the potatoes, which had a some crust and, she noted, were not overcooked. The potatoes were, as you can see, large pieces, and they’d been cooked with diced onions. The onions were a bit overcooked, understandably, but good withal.

I ordered the corned beef hash ($18.99), one of my favorites, and chose eggs over easy and sourdough toast.

Again, the eggs were cooked to a marvel. You also can see that the corned beef hash was topped with Roma tomatoes. Roma tomatoes appear a lot on Juneau menus, and I expect that there’s a local producer. These had a nice red color and actually had some flavor. The one thing they didn’t have was any business on top of the corned beef hash.

I must confess that I knew they would be atop the hash. The menu plainly said they would. I thought, that’s wrong. I should ask for them on the side. Then I thought that the Sandpiper was much beloved and prospering grandly. They’re food business experts. Perhaps they know something I don’t know, even though I live in Washington, DC, the capital of know-it-alls. Maybe I should be open to new approaches, new foods. I took the leap, trusting the judgment of successful authorities.

Sometimes you get the bear, sometimes the bear gets you. The tomatoes did in what had been an admirable crust. My mistake. All was not lost, however. In addition to the usual potatoes, onions, and some bell pepper, the corned beef hash had excellent corned beef. I mean delicious corned beef. Their lunch menu describes it as “house” corned beef and it certainly tasted house-made. I’ve eaten a lot of corned beef hash all over the country, always looking for the very best, the champ. This could have been a contender. As it was, it was very good.

I removed the tomatoes from the hash and ate them on my toast, and ate the corned beef hash and eggs with real appreciation. Every now and then I’d glance at another table and see an order of unmolested hash browns and feel a twinge, but that really was good corned beef, and a fine dish.

The sourdough was ordinary, but the rye was very good, with the sourness of rye and the earthiness of pumpernickel. Regular readers guessed my objection to the toast when they saw Nancy’s plate.

The toast was not hot enough to melt the butter. It was tepid. Room temperature. Sigh!

We paid the tab and, well fortified, set out on our 6.2 mile walk in the then gentle rain, trying to ignore the steep terrain Juneau’s streets climb, and that we soon would climb as well.

For me, the Sandpiper had some misses, but some extra base hits, including a homer. The toast … sigh. What can I say? The corned beef hash, sure, I should have asked for the tomatoes on the side. Put not your trust in princes, or I should say experts. I will if I go again, because other than that, the dish was exceptionally good. And those eggs were just right. You should go to the Sandpiper, but be careful if you haven’t had nearly enough sleep, and think before you order. Do as I say, not as I do.

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