You’ll Find a Goodfriend in this Breakfast Sandwich

There's one thing (of many) this writer and Sandwich Expert Nick Rallo agree upon: There's magic in a good breakfast sandwich.

Even better is a place that does two things — opens daily and serves these meals on biscuits. Such a spot exists in East Dallas at Goodfriend Package.

Observer critic Brian Reinhart wrote about the gratifying simplicity of the restaurant's BLT over the summer — the meal made for a good one to enjoy in the sunshine in a nearby park.

As we continue to stay out of dining rooms but the temperatures get cooler, meals are now taking us home, or in the case of my recent visit to Goodfriend, it involved eating breakfast in the parked car, gravy and all.

It's easy enough to order online for breakfast or lunch, but we'll stick to that first part of the menu this time.

The list starts with a beer biscuit, the thing all good meals can be built upon. The biscuits here are shorter in height and properly dense to hold savory contents while staying soft. Get one for $2 and add whatever fillings you want to fill two slices.

You can also go for the biscuits and gravy ($4.50), an item on so many menus where just one of the two is acceptable. Here, both parts are beyond that with the aforementioned biscuit and just slightly thick gravy spiced with homemade sausage.

But better yet, get both a sandwich and the gravy.

In the Before Times, you could sit at the high-top counter and order the Ol' Dirty biscuit sandwich, which would easily make you look around to make sure no one was watching you tackle the thing. A biscuit and gravy isn't meant to be handheld, even if it's in sandwich form.

The last time I did this, June 17, 2019, the sandwich was solid, even if I had to use a fork and knife. Something better has happened to it since then, though. The housemade sausage is still wonderfully flavorful, enough to be eaten with the biscuit and nothing else. The gravy is more flavorful, and on our recent takeout visit, the cheese had time to melt and become one with the gravy — just enough to blend textures while maintaining its own identity in a way that only American cheese can.

It has to be too many calories. On this morning, it followed a bike ride and heavy lifting, so hopefully it's just fuel. But even if it's not, it's worth it. I'm still using the lifting excuse for my swiping the last bite of biscuit around the paper container to gather the last bit of the gravy, though.

Other biscuit sandwiches include the East Point with egg, ham, bacon and white cheddar ($7.50) and the West Side with egg white, avocado and tomato ($6). There's also avocado toast if that's your thing ($4.50) and corned beef hash we hold confidence in ($8.50).

While you can get your order delivered to you curbside, you can also step in for a moment to grab coffee. The only thing that makes this list of breakfast sandwiches even better is the fact that we can get Cultivar on the way out. A divider separates the customer and cashier: On a recent visit, it just took holding up the bag of Happy Harvest and my quickly tapping the card on the reader. No touching anything.

These days it's not enough to just have a solid breakfast sandwich. Taking the extra steps — online order, curbside pickup, touchless payments — are making establishments worth returning to.

Goodfriend Package, 1155 Peavy Road (East Dallas). Open for takeout 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.