Order Up is an unassuming little place on an out-of-the-way access road, and that may be part of its charm, but it's worth the trip to Rifle, CO just to have breakfast here. Let's start with the immaculately clean dining room, all done in warm, natural wood and red brick, with green accent cushioning on chairs and booth seats. Then we'll rave about the warmth and enthusiastic service of the single hostess/server running the front of the house at the time of our visit. Oh, I should mention that we arrived before 0600, and state the fact that it's rare to find a nice, clean, bright sit-down restaurant open at that hour, especially one that isn't a 24-hour chain-type establishment. Only our booth and a single table of locals were occupied at any point in the duration of our visit, but I SO hope that the entire huge dining room was packed later on, since this place was so very worth it!

Raz had an omelet called "The Ghost," which was stuffed with ghostpepper-jack cheese, bacon, and jalapenos. The picante punch was enough to wake me up just smelling it across the table. The bite I tried packed serious scovilles, even with the ooey, gooey, cheesy goodness of the jack part of the cheese to help blunt the capsaicin kick. That omelet isn't for the faint of heart or delicate of mouth, but the flavors do blend exceedingly well if you can handle the heat. The generous helping of home fries and toast that accompany that spicy egg-based half-moon of decadence ensure you won't leave hungry even if your mouth can't hold up to the bite of the chiles.  

The divine creation that was the "Breakfast Sliders" is not always on the menu, it seems. This makes me even more joyful that we found Order Up right when we did, as I've never experienced a better breakfast sandwich in all my travels (48 states, 12 countries, 3 continents so far). It seems a simple dish too, ham, eggs, cheese on a little, toasted bun. There was perfection in the preparation and presentation, though, that I've not seen matched. The ham was diced and folded into the buttery, fluffy omelet-style egg, and the cheese was that perfect medium that holds its own in the flavor profile with the ham and eggs, but doesn't overpower any of the other flavors. The little bun, though... I lack words in an otherwise pretty robust lexicon to fully describe the simultaneous crispiness of the toasted surface with the cloud-like softness of the crumb, and the dreamy flavor of simple wheat, salt, water, and leavening that made the ideal complement to the filling of the sandwich. The perfectly griddled hashbrowns didn't actually need any additives to make them a heavinly accompaniment to my sliders, but the lovely server brought at least four varieties of hot sauce to the table (including my favorite Original Cholula) without my even having to ask, so I had to at least drizzle a little. 

Raz and I were both so pleased with our breakfast that we could talk of little else for about a hundred miles after, and we're looking at excuses to wander back through Rifle in the near future.