The Early Starter was one of Little Chef's oldest most and famous breakfasts.
It was introduced at some point between 1958 & 1970. As told by it's name, it was a breakfast which was created to target the early morning crowd seeking a fried breakfast. The item developed it's own fanbase - so much so that by the 1980s, the item had it's very own platter on which a hungry customer would be served their Early Starter.
Upon the introduction of the Olympic Breakfast in 1994, the item lost a little bit of it's popularity. The item went through many changes, and was even dropped from the menu in winter 2006 and was replaced by the Take Five Breakfast. However, it was quickly returned to the menu in 2007 after outcry and remained on it until the end.
When Little Chef became branded as EG Diner in 2018, the Early Starter became known as the "Early Bird Breakfast"
Main Ingredients[]
For most of the chain's lifetime, the original Early Starter consisted of (at least) the following:
- A Fried Egg
- A Rasher of Bacon
- Sausages (the breakfast was originally served with one sausage, then another sausage was added to replace the beans in 2005)
- A Griddled Tomato (removed in 2006)
- A slice of Fried Bread
- Baked beans (introduced around 1999, removed in 2005 and re-added in 2006 to replace the tomato)
The Early Starter was removed in 2006 but then re-added in 2007. This new incarnation was served as follows:
- A Fried Egg
- A Rasher of Bacon
- A Sausage
- 2 Hash Browns
- Heinz brand baked beans
- A slice of fried or toasted bread
This version was served until the chain's demise in 2018. There was also a vegetarian version, which had a vegetarian sausage and a griddled tomato instead of bacon and the sausage.