Red velvet pancakes, eggs and laughs. Welcome to the table for Joe Castiglione's Breakfast Club

Joe Castiglione eyed the red velvet pancakes.

Even though he had been to The Pancake House in Lubbock many times and always has pancakes ― they’re in the restaurant's name, so they have to be great, right? ― he decided to try a new variety. The thick, fluffy pancakes stacked three high covered the plate and looked delicious.

The powdered-sugar icing drizzled all over them, though?

The OU athletic director shook his head.

“I wouldn’t put it on,” he said seriously.

Breakfast is serious business for Castiglione. 

For the better part of three decades, Castiglione and members of his athletic department staff have gathered for breakfast before road games, early start times permitting. The outing to The Pancake House the morning of OU’s regular-season finale at Texas Tech was actually the first of the football season. 

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While the tradition is largely observed during football season because more staff travel to games, Castiglione tries to get a group together for breakfast whenever he is on the road with any Sooner team.

“It wasn’t anything other than just finding the best local breakfast,” he said, “and then it just kind of grew into this tradition.”

Welcome to Joe C’s Breakfast Club.

Here’s how serious Castiglione and Co. take their breakfasts: they keep a spreadsheet of options. 

It includes Big 12 locales as well as places OU teams have traveled to for non-conference games as well as postseason play. For those less-traveled haunts, it’s important to keep a list of where the breakfasts are good and where they’re meh.

“There’s been some duds,” Castiglione admitted. “What happens is, somebody will give you a recommendation, and you’ll be like, ‘What did they see in this place?’”

But lots of times, Castiglione and his breakfast bunch will be going to a place they know well.

For example, before games at Baylor, Megg’s Cafe in nearby Temple, Texas is a favorite.

“They have these little mini brisket breakfast tacos,” Castiglione said.

Also on the breakfast menu: deviled eggs.

“It’s not your classic diner,” said Larry Naifeh, OU’s executive deputy athletic director.

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Trips to Texas A&M include a stop at the Hullabaloo Diner in College Station.

“It’s a great place,” Castiglione said. “Actually, the front of it is an old diner from New York, New Jersey, somewhere in the Northeast. And they had a … how many egg omelet was it?

“Twelve?” Naifeh said.

“No, no,” Castiglione said. “It was more than that. It was like a 20-egg omelet. It’s got everything. Sausage. Potatoes.”

The breakfast club has also found some out-of-the-way gems. 

During a trip to West Virginia several years ago, an OU donor suggested the breakfast buffet at the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge in Nutter Fort. 

“I know you’re not going to believe me,” Castiglione remembers the donor saying, “but … they do a couple dinners a week and then these weekend breakfasts.”

Castiglione figured they’d give the FOP a try, and everyone ended up with food piled high on their plates. Zac Selmon, OU’s deputy athletic director for external engagement and the breakfast club’s resident pancake expert, labeled the FOP’s pancakes the best.

Castiglione and his bunch have had all sorts of adventures.

Several years ago toward the end of Bob Stoops’ run as the Sooners’ head coach, OU was playing at Iowa State. The Sooner traveling party was staying in nearby Ankeny, so Joe C’s Breakfast Club headed to one of its favorite spots, the Ankeny Diner.

Before the tale goes any further, Castiglione stopped.

“You’re gonna think we’re making this story up,” he said, “and it is absolutely true.”

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Castiglione had a group of eight with him that morning, and because the Ankeny Diner is so small, the OU contingent had to sit at the counter.

“And there’s a relatively large man that’s sitting at the counter as well, kind of across from us,” Naifeh said, “and this relatively large man is staring at us. Like, really staring at us. So, he finally comes over and says, ‘You guys from Oklahoma?’”

Everyone in the group was wearing OU gear.

“Yes, sir,” they said.

“Yeah,” the man said with a sneer, “I know the whole story. I know the whole damn story about how you came in the dark of night, you found him and you stole him from us. Yeah, you guys stole Bob Stoops. 

“And I know who did it. That damn Joe Castiglione went behind our back and took him away from us.”

Castiglione was sitting next to Clarke Stroud, then OU’s vice president of student affairs, and they were giving each other side eyes, recognizing the man had no idea Castiglione was sitting right there.

“You really have a lot of pent up anger about this,” Castiglione remembers Stroud saying to the man. “You’re really holding onto this.”

“I’ll never forgive him,” the man replied. “Bobby Stoops is a Hawkeye. He should be at the University of Iowa.”

“What would you say if you ever met Joe Castiglione?” Stroud asked.

The man started ranting again, and when he finally stopped, Stroud broke the news.

“Well, today’s your lucky day,” Stroud said. “Here he is.”

The man looked at Castigione, turned and walked out.

Fun is a big part of the breakfast club, which has few rules. No eating at a chain restaurant. Any staff member is invited, but not everyone comes. They got a reservation for 10 at The Pancake House, for example, but two seats were empty. They rarely talk about work, though there’s no rule against it, and if they go somewhere and the game later that day does not go well, they are superstitious about not going back.

“Yes,” Castiglione said, “that is for sure.”

But sometimes in the smaller locales, there aren’t a ton of choices.

“It’s not like a one and done,” Castiglione said. 

Besides, some places are too good to give up. Like The Pancake House. Naifeh called it a quintessential diner with its wood paneling, metal signs nailed to the walls and counter stools bolted to the floor.

“And today's special,” Naifeh said, pointing to a chalkboard near the door to the kitchen, “is Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.”

Joe C’s Breakfast Club found it quite heavenly even if the icing on those red velvet pancakes wasn’t the greatest. Still, the entirety of the food spread out in front of Castiglione was impressive: massive pancakes, a bowl of grits, and plate full of bacon and eggs.

“That,” Selmon said with a twinkle in his eye, “looks like what you eat when you’re going to the electric chair.”

Jenni Carlson: Jenni can be reached at 405-475-4125 or jcarlson@oklahoman.com. Like her at facebook.com/JenniCarlsonOK, follow her at twitter.com/jennicarlson_ok, and support her work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

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