Signature Dishes: Wade's brings made-to-order doughnuts to Export's breakfast table

This is part of an ongoing series highlighting Signature Dishes at locally owned restaurants in the region. See Trib Total Media’s new online directory of restaurants, Dine Local, at dinelocal.triblive.com.

If too much business is a problem, Karen Wade and her husband, Alan, were on the verge of having a problem.

“We’re a small dining room and kitchen,” said Wade, a Murrysville resident and owner of Wade’s Breakfast & Grille on Washington Avenue in downtown Export. “If we get any busier, we won’t have room to store the food we’ll need.”

After opening in fall 2019 and weathering the covid-19 pandemic through takeout and a slow-but-steadily-building customer base, the diner’s old-school stainless steel counter is regularly packed throughout the mornings.

Patrons wait on corned beef hash, omelets and breakfast burritos. The homemade doughnuts — made-to-order, in fact — have been a particular hit.

The self-described “breakfast-obsessed” Wades have restaurant experience, working previously for Texas Roadhouse. Their friend who owned the Youngstown Grille recommended adding doughnuts to their menu.

“He was actually going to open this place,” Wade said. “But he was getting too busy down there. The doughnuts are delicious. They’re made to order, and they remind you of the carnival.”

During the worst of the pandemic’s lockdowns, Wade’s never closed its doors, continuing to provide takeout to diners who had only recently discovered them a few months before.

“We had a $25 family breakfast special that really did well for us,” Wade said. “And the doughnuts are something we could pull off the menu and get out the door easily. I think being the only game in town for a little while, we were able to do well and meet a lot of the customers who are coming in now.”

But with a crowded dining room, Wade said she feels bad “when the phone’s ringing off the hook and people who used to get a table in 10 minutes now have to wait an hour.”

“I’m glad we’re growing,” she said, but added they are looking to hire an additional cook to join Alan and three additional employees who help on weekends.

“I’d like my husband to have a day off sometime in life,” Wade said with a smile.

She said they chose Export out of several possible locations.

“We liked the size of the community,” she said. “I feel like Export has one of everything you need.”

That now includes hot, made-to-order doughnuts, dusted with powdered sugar, decorated with strawberry garnish and dripping with Hershey’s syrup.

Wade’s Breakfast & Grille (5891 Washington Ave.) is open seven days a week, 6:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. 724-217-0545.