I'm thinking back over all the rubbery scrambled eggs, the sausage that turned out to be mostly gristle, the coffee that had turned bitter in the pot. So many terrible croissants and stale muffins. I can't understand why there's such a dearth of decent breakfast restaurants.
As a perpetual early riser, I am at my best at 6 a.m., hungry at 7, and quite often, not in any mood to cook for myself. I don't think I'm alone in my search for a quiet, clean and pleasant retreat where I can sit, sip and greet the day.
A perfect breakfast restaurant serves scrambled eggs that are moist and not greasy. It offers cappuccino smoothies and thick Cuban coffee. You can order steel-cut, Irish oatmeal, served with buttermilk or frisky mango sorbet. The croissants crackle and flake when you bite them, and sometimes, a pianist entertains. It's a place you can take your friends and family and hang out, since breakfast is served all day.
It doesn't exist in the Tampa Bay area.
Maybe someday, it will. But I do know a few places that exhibit some of the traits of my ideal. Good breakfast is hard to find, but it's out there.
The Boardin' House Café
This restaurant has long been one of my personal favorites. I was a loyal luncher there for years before I discovered it was open for breakfast, too. Both are smokin'. At noon, it has a devoted regular following among downtowners, but its breakfast seems to be a well-kept secret. Maybe it is due to the restaurant's location, anonymously set inside the first floor of the SunTrust Financial Centre or the fact that it's open only during the workweek, Monday through Friday and is closed on weekends.
Whatever the reason, it's a dynamite breakfast. The fare is straightforward American-style, with a serious Southern accent. Like the steamy, perfect grits that come in a clean white cup, swirled with butter. Or the flaky biscuits drenched in white sausage gravy. Five kinds of coffee, kept on burners within easy reach, so you can refill as many times as you like.
Try the Country Skillet ($4.80), two eggs, hash browns or grits, bacon or sausage, toast or biscuits, layered with a rich sausage gravy (delish, but could have been hotter). Or the daily breakfast special; one day recently, it was french toast with the crispest, freshest bacon and hot coffee ($3.85), which you can also order takeout. Calorie counters will like the seasonal fruit plate ($6.75), always fresh-cut fruit with cottage cheese and a slice of tender banana nut bread, one of those dishes whose scent alone can lure me out of bed in one minute flat.
Owner Elizabeth Athanasopoulos said she did not learn culinary secrets from growing up in the South. Rather, she and her late husband bought the restaurant in 1996 and decided to offer down-home eats "because that's what people like."
"It's good, home-cooked meals; it's chicken-fried steak, handmade mashed potatoes and gravy; it's very popular," she said.
Grama Grippo's Breakfast Café
This tidy little eatery sits across Hillsborough Avenue from the northern end of one of Tampa International Airport's runways, an 8,300-foot river of concrete that pilots know as "18L – 36R." When you get out of your car in the parking lot, you get a bone-rattling thrill in the form of a thundering, screaming jet, in all its mechanical glory, coming down directly overhead.
Still, it's quiet once you're ensconced at a table, looking straight down the runway out the front window. The behemoths set down gently, despite their heft. Sip cappuccino — not the strongest version I've ever tasted — but better than boring American coffee.
Order Orlaida's Bananas Foster French Toast ($4.94), crisp, egg-dipped bread, fried and crispy, set with quartered bananas, and lathered with a buttery, delectable sauce. The toast is set in a circular pattern, and in its center well sits an arctic drift of real whipped cream. Skip the fruit cup that it comes with, as the honeydew and cantaloupe were stale. Go instead for orange juice and a side order of hot and fat, high-quality sausage ($1.94).
Other popular dishes are a plate-size, puffed peach pancake ($4.54), loaded with fresh peaches and layered with sauce and six types of eggs benedict. I tried one, and the eggs were delish, but it needed more hollandaise sauce.
The restaurant also serves lunch, with sandwiches, salads and burgers.
Owner Tony Gettner opened about six months ago at the east end of a strip shopping center. He named the restaurant for his grandmother, who is in her 90s and lives in Chicago. Gettner, a former trainer of restaurant servers for the Darden restaurant chain, sure knows how to treat his customers well: It shows, too, in prompt, friendly service.
Central City Bean
This modest cafe inside the Snell Arcade, right downtown in St. Pete, is a tasty spot for an early-morning feed. Excellent coffee, and lots of it. For a fruity treat, try the Blackberry Viennese Frozen Latte, ($3.50 for a 16-ounce glass), made with espresso, blackberry syrup, Ghiradelli dark chocolate, half-and-half, and ice. It's a chill with a java jolt that really wakes you up. Or try owner Randy Arnett's cappuccino (small, $2.57; medium, $3.13, and large, $3.41), frothy, hot and fresh each day.
Use it to down some of the excellent pastry handmade by Arnett's wife, Dawn. Her crumbly cranberry-almond scones ($1.85) are a paragon of their ilk, along with moist, truly authoritative fruit breads, flavored with banana or lemon ($2.25/two slices), and a sweetly satisfying big-wheel oatmeal cookie ($1.50).
Also on the menu are various types of brewed coffees, of which Arnett provides three or so each day, iced cappuccino, Café Milano, hot chocolate, and handmade chocolates and candies.
Arnett said they had operated a similar business in Wisconsin, but relocated to St. Pete last summer because he foresaw serious downtown growth, and wanted to be part of it. It's Wisconsin's loss, and our gain.
Food Editor Sara Kennedy dines anonymously, and Weekly Planet pays for her meals. she can be reached at sara.kennedy@weeklyplanet.com or 813-248-8888 ext. 116.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2003.