With a bright color scheme and lively music, Cracked on Thayer Street welcomed its first customers on Monday to an eatery which specializes in all things egg sandwiches.
The menu, with around a dozen items, includes egg sandwiches topped with ribeye steak, chicken cutlets and corned beef hash. Restaurant Manager Howard Gantz said that the restaurant aims to create a “unique and different experience” for customers.
The Henhouse Delight, an egg sandwich stuffed with fresh arugula, avocado and parmesan and priced at $9 before tax, is one of Gantz’s personal recommendations. It was the restaurant’s best-seller on Monday, he added.
“Everybody loves eggs,” Gantz said when asked why the restaurant was built on eggs. “It’s an unsung hero.”
“The impetus behind it is just creating something different in an area that we know thrives on different” options, he added. Thayer was “a magnet for us because we thought we were doing something unique” compared to other restaurants.
“While we were cleaning and getting ready, people were popping their heads in, excited to know when we were going to be opening,” Gantz told The Herald.
Gantz called the restaurant “a loftier experience to fast food” which hopes to elevate the traditional comfort food experience using high quality ingredients and house-made sauces. Some sauce options include truffle aioli, cilantro lime sauce and rooster sauce, which includes saffron.
In order to stay local, Cracked sources its bread, produce and other ingredients from other local businesses in Rhode Island. “It’s nice to create that local flair,” Gantz said.
“The service was incredible,” Turner Lie-Nielsen ’28, who went to the opening and tried the Chicken Head sandwich, told The Herald. “Props for the creative theme too.”
“Cracked offers a comforting meal at a decently affordable price, plus welcoming staff,” said Katherine Kim ’28, who purchased the Hay Stack sandwich which includes egg, hash browns and cheese.
Gantz said the build-up to the opening was “nerve-wracking,” adding that despite the time it took to get ready, “it was worth it to put our own (decoration) on the location.”
“This morning, when we finally got busy and we looked out there and … the kitchen line was slammed … It was a really good feeling,” Gantz said.
He added that Cracked hopes to expand to more locations in the future once they perfect the service, food and atmosphere.
