Spending a night or two at the The Parsonage B&B in Jim Thorpe guarantees you an amazing breakfast, made with the freshest local ingredients, hand-selected for their quality and flavor.

The attention to detail by innkeepers Jeffri Coleman and Michael Rivkin is certainly fitting for one of the top 10 B&Bs in the country, not to mention the world, as recently proclaimed by the 2019 TripAdvisor’s Travellers’ Choice Awards.

As you migrate toward the dining room, lured by the aroma of fresh coffee and something warm from the oven, Rivkin is there to greet you with a cup of Sway’s Blend from Morghan Rake of Effort, a specialty tea, or if you’re feeling a bit more French or playful, perhaps a cup of hot chocolate made with milk from Hahn’s Dairy in Palmerton.

Catch a whiff of something sizzling in the kitchen? This morning it’s bourbon bacon, but tomorrow it could be Italian sausage from Thompson’s Meat Market in Walnutport.

Settle in at the large communal dining table and let the morning’s cuppa wake you while you socialize with the other guests and enjoy an amuse-bouche, a tiny mouthful of decadence, fresh from the oven. Today its rugelach with homemade cranberry jam or an apple tart.

While everyone gets to know one another – lots of friendships begin around the Chippendale dining room table – let’s slip into the kitchen as Coleman prepares a sumptuous breakfast.

Spread out on the marble workspace, are the makings of today’s breakfast; each ingredient is mise en place, as the French say, which means in its place and ready. As Coleman prepares to create, his palette is a colorful arrangement of pottery and china, as lovely as it is functional, to hold each item.

“I always use beautiful bowls, even if it’s just us,” says Coleman from the kitchen of the circa 1844 residence and B&B. “It makes me joyful.”

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Coleman is a professionally trained chef, as is Rivkin. They met 40 years ago in culinary school at The Hotel Hershey.

Coleman later worked for Betty Groff, an American celebrity chef known for her expertise in Pennsylvania Dutch cooking. Her restaurant, located in her 1756 Mount Joy farmhouse, was a pilgrimage for food lovers, including Craig Claiborne, editor and food critic for The New York Times. While Coleman worked there, the restaurant earned five Silver Spoons.

On today’s menu is baked yogurt, a dish served each morning in India and designed to aid in digestion. This dish is flavored with candied ginger and topped with a drizzle of honey and chopped pistachios, the sweetness and saltiness sure to tantalize your taste buds.

For the main course — yes, main course — it’s a lovely butternut-flat bread pudding complemented with a pea and roasted pepper onata. The combination of flavors is truly a party in your mouth!

On another morning you might enjoy a roasted sweet onion and chestnut soufflé, garnished with chevre, roasted tomatoes, hazelnuts and Aleppo.

And while these offerings may sound like the kind of breakfast you’ll need to nap off, they aren’t. Portions are sized to satisfy, not stuff you. Like most patrons to the inns and B&Bs in Jim Thorpe, guests of The Parsonage are usually eager to get out and experience what the area has to offer. So weighing them down with a heavy meal isn’t on the menu.

If you want to give one of these dishes a try, Coleman shared a few of his recipes. If you have time, wake your sweetheart up with a treat tomorrow in honor of Valentine’s Day, or whip one up for yourself.

Just make sure to pull out your best silver and your fanciest china, and start your day in a beautiful, delicious way.

For more photos, visit: https://www.tnonline.com/parsonage-breakfast