Some of the best comfort food in the world lives on a bar menu: loaded nachos, crispy fries, hot wings, anything you can pile high and share. This recipe takes that spirit and moves it to the breakfast table. It’s a deconstructed Denver omelet served over potatoes that get golden and crisp in a waffle iron, finished with a drizzle of hot sauce mayo and a scatter of scallions. In other words, all the fun of bar food, dressed up for the morning.
It started as a layered breakfast-nacho idea, but Dan and Diane pulled it apart and rebuilt it as something easier to plate and a little more elegant: an open-faced breakfast where every component gets its own moment. The waffle iron is the trick that makes it feel special — those little ridges catch every bit of cheese and mayo.
Bar Food, Meet Breakfast
There’s a reason bar food is so beloved: it’s indulgent, a little playful, and made for sharing. Breakfast doesn’t always get to be that fun. This dish bridges the two. The crisp, ridged potatoes stand in for nachos or fries, the hot sauce mayo brings the zip you’d expect from a good wing sauce, and the Denver omelet fillings — ham, peppers, onion, plenty of cheese — turn it into a proper morning meal. It’s hearty enough to satisfy a big appetite and just unexpected enough to make guests smile.
Deconstructed Denver Omelet on Waffled Potatoes
Makes 6 servings · Total time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
For the waffled potatoes
- 1 bag (30 oz.) frozen potato tots or crowns, thawed
For the hot sauce mayo
- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
- 1 Tbsp. hot sauce, like sriracha
For the Denver filling
- 8 oz. ham steak, diced
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
- 1/2 cup diced green bell pepper
- 1/2 cup diced onion
For the eggs
- 9 eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
To assemble
- 3 cups shredded Colby Jack cheese
- Sliced scallion greens
How to Make It
- Preheat the oven. Heat the oven to 400°. You’ll use it at the end to melt the cheese over the assembled plates.
- Waffle the potatoes. Heat a waffle iron. Press a layer of thawed tots (about 1 1/2 cups) into the iron, close it, and cook 8–10 minutes until golden and crisp. Repeat in batches. Keep warm.
- Make the hot sauce mayo. Whisk together the mayonnaise and hot sauce then spoon into a compostable pastry bag and snip off the tip for easy drizzling.
- Cook the filling. Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over high heat. Add the diced ham and cook until it begins to brown, 3–4 minutes, then transfer to a paper-towel-lined plate. Add the bell peppers and onion to the pan and cook until tender and the moisture has cooked off, about 5 minutes. Stir the ham back in and season with salt and pepper.
- Scramble the eggs. Whisk the eggs and milk together and season with salt and pepper. Melt the butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until foamy. Add the eggs and cook to a soft scramble, leaving them slightly underdone, about 3 minutes — they’ll finish setting once they hit the warm toppings.
- Assemble and melt. Set the waffled potato bases on a baking sheet. Top with the soft-scrambled eggs, a drizzle of hot sauce mayo, the ham-and-pepper mixture, and a generous handful of Colby Jack. Slide into the 400° oven just until the cheese melts, approximately 10 minutes. Finish with a scatter of scallion greens. Serve hot.
Innkeepers’ Tips
Keep the eggs soft. Pull them off the heat while they still look a touch underdone. The warm cheese and potatoes will carry them the rest of the way, and they stay tender instead of turning rubbery.
Use a pastry bag. Dan and Diane spoon the hot sauce mayo into a compostable pastry bag and snip the tip — it gets the mayo into every nook of the waffled potatoes and is far easier to clean than a squeeze bottle.
Prep ahead. Waffle the potatoes and cook the filling in advance, then warm everything and assemble to order — handy when you’re feeding a hungry group.
Adjust the heat. Prefer a milder plate? Leave the hot sauce out of the mayo, or set it on the side so everyone can add their own.
Build the Layers to Fit You
The best part of a deconstructed dish is that nothing is locked together. Because every layer goes on separately, this breakfast bends easily to whatever you need. Going dairy-free? Skip the cheese — the hot sauce mayo and the savory ham-and-pepper mixture carry plenty of flavor on their own. Eating vegetarian? Leave out the ham and let the peppers, onion, eggs, and crispy potatoes take center stage. You can lean into more vegetables, swap the mayo for a plant-based version, or keep it as written.
This is exactly how Dan and Diane approach breakfast at Pinecrest. Every plate gets built the way each guest needs it — dairy-free, vegetarian, or simply to taste — so no one has to choose between a meal that fits their diet and one that feels like a treat.
Come Hungry
Pinecrest is a relaxing, adults-only bed and breakfast just about a mile from downtown Asheville, where mornings start with something worth getting up for. Whether you make this one at home or come let us cook for you, we hope it brings a little of that loaded-plate, bar-food joy to your table. Just tell us how you take it, and we’ll build it your way.
Ready to wake up to breakfast like this? Reserve your stay and let us do the cooking