Back in the day when I had a regular job, I was a great fan of breakfast meetings. Chicken-fried steak with sausage gravy, eggs, hash browns, and toast (two rounds) could make the most irksome news palatable. No matter what the higher-ups threw at me, if I was told over breakfast, I could deal with their inanity.
Back in the day when I’d party until the early hours of the morning, knowing I had to be at my desk at 9am, it was the full treatment of bacon, egg, sausage and black pudding that got me through the day. Nothing else could come close.
Back in the day when I travelled a lot more than I do now, I never missed a hotel breakfast. There’s something about sitting on my own in a huge dining room, with no one to bat an eyelid if I went back for seconds or thirds. The anonymity of it all was quite cathartic, even if the cheeses at times were a trifle rubbery and what some countries serve for breakfast is quite an experience.
Sadly, I’ve found no one this side of the Atlantic who can make a chicken-fried steak or even come close to decent hash browns or sausage gravy. Sadder still, I no longer have what it takes to pull all-nighters, or even early morningers and still function the next day.
So that leaves me with hotel breakfasts. But how to have the breakfast without staying in a hotel?
The lads at Kompót, a great little restaurant on Corvin Sétány that I’ve written about before, have started doing a continental buffet-style breakfast each morning from 7am to 10am to cater for the folks in the myriad aparthotels in that part of town. Curiosity got the better of me (as it usually does) and I wandered over yesterday morning to check it out.
It didn’t disappoint. Cold cuts, cheese, eggs, sausage, cereals, yoghurt, fruit, coffee, tea, bread, were all present and accounted for. I helped myself and then went outside to eat in the early morning sunshine. As I sat and watched the world go by, I thought that I might well have been on holiday, rather than 200 metres from home. I had my book. I had my coffee. I had my eggs. And I was in no rush to go anywhere. Methinks it will become a regular occurrence.
Unpacking my 'bottom drawer' in Budapest 
I would hope that any hotel worthy of the name would be capable of welcoming the early traveller for breakfast once they’re serving it. Certainly country hotels in England do. Business is business!
Without a room key? mmmm… can’t say ’cause I’ve never tried, but then I’ve not seen a cash till at any hotel breakfast I’ve ever had. Must pay more attention.