A cheddar-ham biscuit with a soft-boiled egg: how could this be bad? No big surprises, it's pretty perfect and available all day at Iris Cafe in Brooklyn Heights, which opened a couple months ago on a sleepy brownstone block.

Co-owner Rachel Graville uses her grandma's biscuit recipe, which is already flaky, soft, and all those other good adjectives, but then she goes and adds Surryano ham (Serrano-style from Surrey, Virginia) and cheddar—wow. The meat bits give you that smoky flavor without the hassle of a knife-and-fork situation; and the still-warm biscuit gets a swipe of butter (because somehow butter-on-butter is never gratuitous in biscuit situations). There are no "egg" patties involved—this white blob is perfectly cooked and peppered, and the yolk will inevitably ooze into the biscuit craters.

There's a lot of flavor packed into that little breakfast bundle ($3.50) and you can wash it down with Stumptown (coffee swooon).

Iris Cafe

20 Columbia Place, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map) 718-722-7395

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