Recent Stories with tag breakfast

While we were down in Columbia City the other day visiting the Columbia City Theater, we stopped in for lunch at Geraldine's Counter and had a bowl of three-meat chili ($6.95) that it took some digging to reach the bottom of. After a quick conference, The SunBreak Breakfast Team moved Geraldine's up to the top of our breakfast hit list.

Geraldine's Counter (4872 Rainier Avenue South) is right around the corner from a lot on South Ferdinand Street full of 2-hour parking spots that cost exactly $1. (It's also, I will estimate, a 7-minute walk from the Columbia City light rail station.) That's almost thrill enough, but the ambiance of the place--booths to your right as you walk in, light pouring over tables set next to windows on your left, and just in front, the eponymous counter seating--exceeds expectations.

The place is rated highly by the Surly Gourmand, which makes sense because our lunchtime waiter, if not surly, must have made some crotchety vow of silence. There was never any warning or explanation for the fact that two bowls of chili, a cup of tomato soup, and three-cheese sandwich ($6.50: cheddar, Havarti, gruyère) ) took over half an hour to arrive. (In some circles, half an hour is lunch.)

Everything is better with breakfast, though, and that included our service. I asked the waitress for help deciding between the biscuits and gravy ($9.50) and corned beef hash ($8.75), and she gave it real thought--it's a dilemma!--and said hash. I will have to return for biscuits and gravy to be sure, but they serve up a mighty plate of corned beef hash.... (more)

The SunBreak Breakfast Team had heard tales of restaurant on Lower Queen Anne that was offering weekday breakfasts for $6. Étonnant! The only catch was the hours, 9 to 11 a.m. Committed to our readers as we are, could we spare an hour of the actual weekday for breakfast reportage?

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, I told Roger. $6 is a great deal, Roger admitted.

So last Friday morning we sat down at Toulouse Petit (introduced to you by Cornichon and rated four to five stars by everyone else). The restaurant was already three-quarters full when we arrived, at 9:15 a.m. It's named for rue Toulouse in New Orleans, and a great deal of attention went into the interior's faux-Big Easy decrepitude--the walls are scabbed with "crumbling" plaster. Ersatz culture isn't that appealing to me, but we weren't there to eat the walls.

We were there for breakfast. I don't believe all the items on the breakfast menu are $6--plates that go for $15 normally may not be. But in general, options in the $9-$12 range are, and the dilemma you then face is how to choose from between them all. Roger decided on the Biscuits and Spicy Creole Sausage Gravy (with two eggs over easy), and I could not resist the "Big Easy" Andouille Scramble.... (more)

First came the announcement that the Wallingford Community Senior Center would have to close. But then people said nuts to that and held a "soup line" fundraiser.

The community's show of support brought a matching challenge grant of $25,000 from an anonymous Wallingfordian, so now the Board of Directors feel confident about their decision to keep the Center open, and begin to rebuild its services and strengthen its financial footing.

To commemorate turning the corner, the Center plans to hold a community pancake breakfast on Sunday, April 25, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The "New Start Celebration" will be open to the public.

It'll also be a chance to learn about services and programs for seniors, like a senior nutritional lunch program and social activities and groups. (Other area senior programs have had to close, and just three senior centers are left north of the ship canal.) WCSC itself operates on a cost-saving, 4-day week. This April, the Center wants to begin adding back programs. Anyone who wants to help in the effort should call (206) 461-7825.

Ballard's Original Pancake House is part of a nation-spanning, pancake-purveying chain, but you wouldn't know it from the old-school neon sign out front at 80th & 15th Avenue NW. Yelpers are giving it a respectable 3.5 stars, and Urban Spoon likes it 88 percent.

The first impression you get is that they're expecting company: part of the entryway is a large walled-in porch for hordes to take shelter from the weather in before being admitted to the restaurant proper. Our waiter Juliann said the weekends get a little crazy.

Inside is an expanse of tables made of blond wood ("summer camp ambiance" says Ballard Bites), seating Ballardites with sizable appetites who don't demand much from interior design. You can get pancakes, yes, but there's also waffles and crepes for those with a wandering eye. If you want to break all the rules, there's corned beef hash and more. But--and here is where the sizable appetite part comes in--the corned beef hash comes with pancakes. Just when you think you're out! They drag you back in.

The SunBreak Breakfast Team was three this day (Ballard resident Troy J. Morris sat in), and we ordered the Links & Eggs, Corned Beef Hash, and Buttermilk Pancakes (six). The pancakes came solo, but the Links & Eggs and Corned Beef came with a choice of two sides (we went with 3 pancakes and fruit). That, plus two coffees constantly refilled and a Diet Coke, came to $36, plus tip. The Corned Beef Hash was the most expensive option ordered, at $10.95, I believe.... (more)

Yesterday was National Pancake Day according to IHOP, who were offering free pancakes. The crowds of pancake dilettantes meant that was out as a breakfast option. The SunBreak Breakfast Team are not amateurs, however. Our list is deep, and on it is the University Village Burgermaster.

Yelper Ryan sets the Burgermaster breakfast table for you: "It was a whole different scene. Old people sat, reading the newspaper, and the menu was expansive. The Burgermaster I usually go to in Bellevue is a Drive-In only, but this place is an actual restaurant."

I got the short stack, eggs over easy, and bacon; Roger got the short stack, scrambled eggs, and sausage. Both $6.99 (see menu in photo gallery). The serve-yourself Boyd's coffee was...mildly coffee-flavored. We joined a row of mostly men of a certain age, all with the morning paper spread out, at the tables next to the window.

Two retirees shuffled in. One sat down, one kept heading for the order counter, then turned. "You're not gonna eat?" he called to his friend. "You don't eat nothin'. A muffin, what's that?" He paused. "You want somethin'? Well, I'll get ya somethin'."

Burgermaster's pancakes are "fluffy," the high-rising style, and don't come around here trying to peddle your multigrain. My over-easy eggs were cooked just right, but it was hard to discern if actual eggs were involved with Roger's yellow scramble. In compensation, his two greasy brown sausage links had it all over my two dry, chewy slices of bacon. The heat lamp extracts a costly due.

At $6.95, this breakfast runs a little high given the quality, but you are paying for the University Village ambiance, don't forget. And without irony, men of a certain age need all the diner-style breakfast spots they can get.

In honor of screaming chicken day--and the offer of a free Denny's Grand Slam until 2 p.m.--we skipped the potential clustercluck at Seattle's one Denny's and headed to IHOP #612, the venerable 24-hour establishment (950 E Madison) now, the sign informed us, under new management.

The SunBreak breakfast team--RvO and MvB--came equipped with a Seattle Times to flip through and a reasonable appetite to satisfy. We hadn't experienced the old management, but new management was running a tight ship, to our eyes. Tables were clean and fully stocked, and our waiter Victoria stuck to us like maple syrup on a waffle. Granted, only two other tables were seated.

"I'm disappointed with the feeble sports coverage in a major U.S. metro area," announced Roger, brandishing the Times, to which Victoria responded, "You and me both." Placated, Roger ordered a Two by Two by Two (eggs, pancakes, bacon/sausage). I got the Rooty Tooty Fresh 'n' Fruity (essentially the Two by, but with two bacon and two sausage, and fruit on the pancakes).

Both were under $10, but I should note that "all you can eat" pancake offerings start at $4.99.

The market had climbed back to the sunny side of 10,000. Our pot of coffee was bottomless. The eggs were over easy. The pancakes, fluffy. The whipped cream on top of the cinnamon apple compote towered Everest-like. It seemed unlikely that much of it was, by any stretch of the imagination, healthy. I only wished I had ordered a side of toast to mop up the eggs.

Ah, breakfast. It sits right at the heart of mealtime ironies: widely considered essential for a healthy day and almost universally skipped by everyone beyond the age of ten.

The gap between importance and neglect is probably due to a traditionally narrow range of breakfast options. Let’s face it, not much has changed in the morning meal in the centuries since someone discovered that an egg can be scrambled, fried, boiled and beaten, and bacon and sausage come from our friend the pig.

So it came as a pleasant surprise when our friends at vegetarian-oriented Café Flora invited us in to try out their new breakfast menu, now being served every day during the week, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with their always popular brunch still going strong during the weekend.

The restaurant has been serving weekday breakfast since the beginning of the new year, and MvB and I, who sampled the Flora breakfast menu this morning, were told that business is steadily growing.

The coffee, from Stumptown, was the perfect eye opener. Michael remarked that it was hard to tell it was drip. The compact breakfast menu features seven items, four egg scrambles, a breakfast quesadilla, biscuits and gravy, and an old-world-style porridge served with dried fruit and almonds. The menu also includes a fruit parfait, a cinnamon roll, and a fresh pastry.... (more)

Had breakfast yet? Served up from Patty's Eggnest via +Russ and the SunBreak Flickr pool.