Breakfast Queen Ina Pinkney stars in documentary

The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival gets underway Jan. 26. With more than 75 films in the 23-day festival, there are movies for every mindset, including flicks that will delight food lovers.

“Breakfast at Ina’s” is a 50-minute documentary that celebrates beloved Chicago chef Ina Pinkney, otherwise known as the Breakfast Queen.

For 33 years, Pinkney served dishes like pasta frittata, Heavenly Hots pancakes and a mounded chocolate cookie-brownie hybrid dubbed Blobbs. Those delectibles, plus a good dose of her welcoming vibe, made Ina’s a Chicago breakfast institution. Facing the late stages of polio, the restaurateur closed her West Loop eatery in December 2013 and retired.

Pinkney began her culinary career late. She baked her first cake — a flourless chocolate cake — at 37 years old. That led to the advent of her baked goods catering company, the Dessert Kitchen. She opened Ina’s Kitchen in 1991 at the age of 48. It closed five years later. Another concept, Elaine & Ina’s, lasted 18 months. A few years later, Ina’s opened. The rest is history.

“It was horrific to eat out in the ’80s and have breakfast,” she recalled of the inspiration behind her restaurants, noting that, even now, as a columnist writing monthly breakfast recommendations for the Chicago Tribune, “I call out if the coffee is not good enough.”

Other things that irk her: bad bussing, dirty aprons and loud music. “Why is the music so loud? It’s breakfast, for God’s sake!”

Looking back on her career, Pinkney, 72, said she couldn’t have made her jump into the restaurant world any sooner than she did. “I had a very circuitous path. I’ve had 21 jobs in my life. I was fired from 19 of them. Everything I learned in those jobs was something I needed to do in the restaurant every day.”

Among the critical things Pinkney learned was hospitality. She trained her staff to greet every customer upon entry, something she did with her employees every day. “I smiled and said, ‘Good morning, I’m so glad you’re here.’ As a result, they did that as well.”

Hospitality was just one ingredient for success. Pinkney also made sure her food was delicious. “People will accept mediocre food at breakfast at a restaurant because it all comes to the table at the same time” as opposed to one dish at a time in a home kitchen. At Ina’s, everyone got their food at the same time, but it was also tasty.

Among her all-time favorite dishes from Ina’s, Pinkney called the pasta frittata “one of the best baked egg dishes ever,” especially since the frittata can be made in advance, served warm or at room temperature and is great for a crowd.

The Heavenly Hots “are like no other pancake on the planet,” she said. The secret: sour cream and potato starch, the latter because it holds moisture well and is lighter than flour. Those dreamy hotcakes live on. If you’re in Chicago, hit up Miss Ricky’s restaurant and order Ina’s Heavenly Hots.

The recipes for these dishes and others are in “Ina’s Kitchen: Memories and Recipes From the Breakfast Queen,” released in paperback last October. “I don’t have any family to leave the recipes to,” Pinkney said. “That is why I wrote the book.”

Pinkney saw umpteen bigwigs walk through the doors of her restaurants, from Julia Childs (who bequeathed the Breakfast Queen a few spatulas and a potholder) to political strategist David Axelrod, who, according to Pinkney, planned Barack Obama’s first presidential campaign at Ina’s.

What did Pinkney learn most in her decades as a chef and restaurateur? “The responsibility and the honor of feeding people,” she said.

Pinkney survived polio as an infant, but in 2013 the septuagenarian was experiencing decreased mobility from post-polio syndrome. The daily routine of running a restaurant was simply too much, and Ina’s announced it would be closing at year’s end.

Upon reading that Ina’s doors would soon shut forever, Chicago filmmaker Mercedes Kane was impelled to eat at the iconic restaurant. She made Pinkney a film proposal on the spot.

“My first reaction was, ‘Why?’” said Pinkney, recalling how Kane explained that she wanted to show what it took for Pinkney, who wears a leg brace, to run Ina’s each and every day.

Pinkney agreed. “This is the first time in my life when I am a fully integrated woman. Before, I was a brand. Now, I am a polio survivor. There was no room at the table for that story during the restaurant time,” she said.

“Breakfast at Ina’s” was filmed during December 2013, the last month that Ina’s was in operation.

“When I lock the door at the end of the day, I want to say ‘I did it better than anybody,’” Pinkney says in the film.

Did Pinkney do breakfast better than anybody?

“I did,” replied the Breakfast Queen.