Claire Hintze is co-owner of Linda’s Seabreeze Café with her husband Tex.
Claire Hintze has enjoyed the breakfast business since 1990—because she likes getting evenings off. She and her husband Tex Hintze co-owned Linda’s Seabreeze Café with Linda Hopper until Hopper left to buy the Silver Spur eight years later and left the business to Claire and Tex.
SCW: What’s your favorite thing to put on waffles?
Claire Hintze: Well, we have a waffle we put on the board that has strawberries and bananas and kiwi. And in the summertime, when berries are cheaper and abundant, we like to put raspberries and blueberries and anything else we can pretty it up with.
How do you like your eggs?
Over medium, because the whites are cooked and the yolks are still a little runny.
Tell me about your Mickey Mouse-shaped pancakes.
There are two ears and a big round head, and we doctor it up with grapes for eyes and an orange slice for a mouth, and we use a scoop of butter for the nose. And then sometimes if a little girl wants some Minnie Mouse cakes, we pretty it up with strawberries for bows on the ears.
What’s your favorite thing to eat off the menu?
I go through phases. Right now, I’m sharing a sandwich with my daughter, and we’re having a stuffed cheese sandwich. We added sautéed mushrooms and pesto on a Beckman’s Three Seed Bread. It’s delicious.
What are you best sellers?
Most of the things on our specials board go pretty quickly, especially on the weekends. We do eggs benedict and a huevos rancheros of some sort, and different pancakes. The specials board is where I immediately direct people as they sit down, as I give them menus.
Do you put a lot of work into those specials?
Absolutely. We’ve had some of the specials for a long, long time. The pancakes are sometimes seasonal. Now people are asking for pumpkin pancakes, so those will be on the board. And different soups also like butternut squash soup—a fall, winter ingredient. It’s sometimes seasonal. And sometimes it’s just, “wow, we haven’t had that in a really long time.” We’ll run that special like it’s brand new, but really it’s 20 years old.
