The bacon, egg and cheese is the most argued-about food in North Jersey and the least carefully made. Most of them are fine. Fine is the problem. A sandwich that took four minutes and cost seven dollars should not be fine, it should be good, and the gap between those two things is not skill. It is attention.
Here is what we think actually separates them.
The bread does most of the work
A breakfast sandwich is a bread delivery system that happens to contain eggs. If the roll is cold, or it has been sitting in a bag since six, nothing that goes inside it can save it.
We run bagels and croissants, and both get treated properly — toasted or warmed to order, never pre-built and stacked under a heat lamp. If you want something other than the standard, the 586 Sandwich lets you take it in a different direction entirely: whole wheat, white, sourdough or rye, single layer, cut in half, chips on the side.
The egg should be cooked the way you asked
This sounds obvious. It is not what happens at most counters, where every egg is scrambled on a flat top in a big pale sheet and portioned out with a spatula.
Scrambled, over easy, sunny side up — you pick, and it gets cooked when you order it. A yolk that breaks into the sandwich when you bite it is not a mess, it is the point.
Cheese melts or it doesn't count
American, cheddar, swiss, provolone, mozzarella, pepper jack. It goes on while the egg is still hot so it actually melts into it instead of sitting on top like a slice of cold plastic. This is a thirty-second decision that determines whether the sandwich is good.
Build it how you want
The 586 Sandwich is built to order rather than handed to you as somebody else's idea of a sandwich.
Protein: turkey, grilled chicken, crispy chicken cutlet, bacon, turkey bacon, smoked ham. Greens: lettuce, tomato, red onion, arugula, jalapeño, avocado. Spread: mayo, chipotle mayo, sriracha, or none. Egg: fried, up to two. Cheese: free, pick one.
If you want the bigger version, the 586 Club stacks three slices into a double decker, cut in four with picks, with the greens on the second layer. That is a lunch order and we both know it.
When you can get one
Every day during breakfast and brunch — from 7:00 AM on weekdays and 8:00 AM on weekends, through to 3:00 PM. Made to order when you ask for it, not built ahead and stacked under a heat lamp.
586 Summit Ave, Jersey City Heights, a short walk from the Journal Square PATH.
More of what we serve in the morning is on the breakfast and brunch menu.