An Open Letter to Every Restaurant in the World About Bringing Back Strawberry Preserves
- May 14
- 4 min read
Updated: May 16
William Davis is a leadership expert, speaker, and mentor dedicated to helping executives, managers, and aspiring leaders develop the skills to lead confidently and successfully.
Some battles are small enough to ignore, until suddenly they are not, and this one happens to involve breakfast dignity and the quiet disappearance of strawberry preserves. In a world of jam, jelly, and questionable “fruit spreads,” one frustrated voice is drawing a very serious line in the toast.
My fellow humans, we need to talk. By “humans,” I specifically mean every restaurant, hotel, diner, café, breakfast bar, pancake house, and little place with laminated menus and coffee cups thick enough to survive a tornado.
I have tried to be patient. I have tried to be mature. I have tried to show grace. But after nearly 12 months of silent suffering, I can no longer sit quietly while this wonderful world is being robbed of one of breakfast’s most sacred institutions, strawberry preserves.
Not jam. Not jelly. Not “mixed fruit spread,” whatever that means. Preserves. The kind with actual fruit in it. The kind where you can look down at your biscuit and say, “Yes. An actual strawberry was involved in this process.”
I’m not asking restaurants to reinvent breakfast. I’m not asking for fancy butter, imported honey, or a tiny sprig of parsley placed on my eggs like breakfast is trying to win an art contest. I’m asking for strawberry preserves. That’s it. A humble request from a man who has reached the end of his toast.
Let’s clear something up
Somebody somewhere decided jam was an acceptable replacement for preserves. That person was wrong and should be committed! Jam is what happens when strawberries are taken into a back room and pressured into becoming something they were never meant to be.
Crushed. Smashed. Pureed. Silenced. By the time jam makes it to the table, the strawberry is basically in witness protection. You know it might be in there, but you cannot confirm this by sight.
Preserves, on the other hand, tell the truth. Preserves say, “Yes, I am strawberry. You can see me. You can feel me. I am here in full berry authority.” That is integrity. That is transparency. That is leadership in condiment form.
I guess jam is fine, if you’re in a jam. But let’s not pretend it’s great. Now listen, I’m not saying jam is evil.
Jam has its place. Jam is what you give someone when you don’t know them well enough to offer them something better. Jam is the handshake of breakfast toppings. Preserves are the relationship. Jam says, “Good morning.” Preserves say, “Sit down, my friend. Let’s build something meaningful.”
Jelly? Jelly is just fruit juice that lost its courage. Jelly is the ghost of a strawberry haunting a plastic cup. I’m not trying to be harsh. I’m just telling the truth.
The toast test
Take one piece of toast. Spread jam on it. What do you have? A red smear. It looks like your toast got into an argument with a paintball gun and lost. Now spread strawberry preserves on that same piece of toast.
Suddenly, you’ve got texture. You’ve got character. You’ve got hills, valleys, fruit, hope, and a reason to keep going. That toast is no longer just toast. That toast has a future. You do not simply eat preserves. You experience them.
The continental breakfast betrayal
Don’t even get me started on hotels. You walk into a hotel breakfast area at 6:47 in the morning. You’re tired. You’re wearing your pajamas, that is a discussion for another time. You’re holding a paper plate that bends under the weight of one bagel.
You approach the little wicker basket of breakfast disappointment, and what do you find? Grape jelly. Mixed fruit jam. Orange marmalade. Orange marmalade has been riding the bench for 200 years and somehow still makes the team every morning.
But strawberry preserves? Missing. Gone. Vanished. Like common sense in a meeting that should have been an email. Who made this decision? Who looked at the breakfast table and said, “You know what people don’t need anymore? Joy.” I want names!
This is bigger than breakfast
Some people will say, “William, it’s just preserves.” No, it is not. That is how decline starts. First, they take the strawberry preserves. Then somebody says boxed mashed potatoes are fine for Thanksgiving, though I do agree with that. Then powdered eggs start showing up at brunch. Then, before you know it, somebody is serving instant coffee at a leadership retreat and wondering why the team has trust issues.
Standards matter. Details matter. Fruit chunks matter. Because when you remove the preserves, you don’t just remove a condiment. You remove dignity from the biscuit, toast, etc.
My plea to the restaurant industry
To every restaurant in the world, Bring back the strawberry preserves. Put them on the table. Put them in the basket. Put them next to the butter where they belong. Let the hard working people of this world open a tiny container and see real strawberry pieces staring back at them like breakfast still believes in excellence.
We deserve more than a smashed up sugar smear pretending to be fruit. We deserve texture. We deserve honesty. We deserve berries we can identify without a lab report. This is not complicated. This is not political. This is not a focus group issue. This is breakfast justice.
So, I say this with all the sincerity of a man who has had one too many dry biscuits, Bring. Back. The. Preserves. We, the real strawberries of the world, approve of this message!
Read more from William Davis
William Davis, Leadership Blueprint Consultant
William Davis is an expert in the leadership arena with an impressive 38-year career in senior positions within corporate America. Throughout the decades, William has honed a multifaceted understanding of leadership dynamics, management, and organizational development. Bridging various industries, his tenure is marked by a consistent track record of loyalty, support, guidance, and empathy for his teams. This style allowed him and his teams to successfully deliver numerous large-scale projects that delivered significant stakeholder value. He advocates for ethical leadership practices and treatment of teammates, believing that these elements are pivotal to nurturing future leaders and staying ahead in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
