I Had Breakfast at Skyline Chili, and I Have Thoughts

Breakfast is a critical component of diner culture to which, Cincinnati’s own Skyline Chili shares some DNA. While not a diner, of course, Skyline Chili is a chili parlor. The regional institution shares some similarities with diner culture; it’s very popular, has regulars, and the food is served on china. But unlike a typical diner, Skyline does one thing, and one thing well, in this case Cincinnati style chili. So it may seem bizarre to have breakfast at Skyline, it’s honestly not that great of a leap. Many independent parlors have breakfast and even serve burritos that incorporate Skyler Cincinnati style, chili, goetta, or other staples of the standard Cincinnati diet And there are vague memories that certain Skylines used to serve breakfast. But now Skyline Chili is bringing its wares to the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky airport, and to accommodate travelers that are traveling at all times of the day they’re going to offer breakfast exclusively at this location. To celebrate this announcement, Skyline chili served their new breakfast items at Fountain Square today for anyone to try. As a long time as a native Cincinnati and a longtime fan of Cincinnati style chili, I couldn’t resist and if the line at 8 AM when they began serving breakfast, was any indication, other Cincinnatians felt the same way.

Now Cincinnati chili may be considered something of an acquired taste. Though most Cincinnatians acquired that taste as part of their birth right. When talking to area transplants, many of them turn their nose up at our popular local cuisine, although you will find some fans and converts. But again, for most not all, but most native Cincinnati and Skyline chili is part of our heritage. We’ve been eating it since we were children, and it’s now part of our bloodstream, in my case probably 1 to 2%. I should note that my favorite Cincinnati style chili comes from a mom and pop shop in Western Hills. J&J on Glenway has always been my favorite Cincinnati style chili and always will be. But I digress let’s get back to the topic hand, which is breakfast at skyline chili.

There are four items on the breakfast menu at Skyline. Of course, a breakfast burrito, a breakfast Chito, breakfast tots, and the breakfast Coney. I imagine the breakfast coney is probably the item that most people are interested in it. It’s clearly most representative of what most people eat at Skyline chili which is the cheese coney, a hotdog served on a warm bun with chili and cheese. You can add onions and crackers but that’s the basics here for breakfast. The miniature hotdog is replaced with a breakfast sausage, onions are replaced with eggs. This is the item I tried, because I figured it was going to be the most representative item and the one that would also be most like something that you would eat regularly at Skyline. As you could see the single picture I took before trying, it looks like a coney with its mountain of signature cheddar cheese, which every person recognizes is as at the same time way too much and somehow just right. The cheese is piled high on top of breakfast sausage, egg, and chili all on that signature warm bun.

So how does it taste? Well, it’s Skyline chili for sure. The egg adds an interesting texture to the meal. The sausage is a little savory not too spicy and basically mostly covered up by the taste of the signature chili anyway, it’s an interesting item and one that I think native Cincinnati would probably not mind eating for breakfast as they travel out to their destination from the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky airport. I mean why not? What are your other options? Bruegger’s Bagels? McDonald’s? Jack-in-the-Box? Big Kahuna burger? I’m a Cincinnati native I’m gonna go for Skyline. Most Cincinnati residents palates are so tuned to Cincinnati chili that for us it’s just another item like eating a salad, a burger or a regular breakfast. Since chili is just part of what we eat and part of what we love. I love that Skyline is doing this. It makes sense to try it on a trial basis at the airport. It’ll be interesting to see how they react to the lines for the launch and reviews like this one as they possibly consider rolling this out to further locations. But for now if you missed the launch at Fountain Square the only way to get breakfast is skyline chili is at the location at the Cincinnati Northern Kentucky airport again. The items that are available are a breakfast Coney breakfast Burritobreakfast Chito and breakfast tots you can find more details at skylinechili.com.