Breakfasts that make big impressions - Best of the West - Column

Sunset, Dec, 1994 by Bill Crosby

When we asked for your favorite big city breakfast, we were thinking big city. Clearly, you were thinking$BIG. So much the better. Instead of fancy spreads from hotel dining rooms, you gave us good honest food known more for its portions and quality than its surroundings.

That's not to say the restaurants are big, either. The Elbow Room Cafe, in Vancouver, British Columbia, which came highly recommended by local reader Patti Henderson, is in an old house downtown and has only 10 tables. But the approximately 50-item breakfast menu is served all day long, seven days a week, and portions are generous; Henderson makes particular note of the 10-inch-wide pancake: "just $4.75 Canadian!" All available wall space is covered with pictures of celebrities who have eaten there, and serious eating is lightened by interludes of entertaining banter from flamboyant co-owner Patrice Savoie. Henderson says it's a hot spot for all who can "fit in." The Elbow Room is at 720 Jervis Street; (604) 685-3628.

Out in Seattle's Phinney Ridge neighborhood, Mae's Cafe serves all kinds of breakfast food from 7 to 3 every day, but Jill Sunde makes particular note of the cinnamon roll--"to die for! It's huge!" She also recommends the Hangtown Fry, an omelet with oysters folded into the mix, but with one warning: "Remember, eat only half the cinnamon roll with an omelet, or share it." Mae's also has a "moo room" with cow artifacts, a jukebox with the birthday song on it, an espresso room, and a real Mae. The cafe is at N. 65th Street and Phinney Avenue N.; (206) 782-1222.

Omelette Express, in the old Railroad Square area of Santa Rosa, California, could be any other place with huge omelets, big slices of toasted French bread, and hearty servings of cottage fries--except for two things. According to Jenny Bender and Matt Koons, the food is nothing less than "fabulous," and the owner collects old Jaguars, details the front ends, and mounts them on the walls of the restaurant. Reservations aren't accepted for small parties, so Bender and Koons suggest arriving before 10 A.M. on weekends to be seated quickly. Omelette Express is at 112 Fourth Street: (707) 525-1690.

Colleen Katzowitz's favorite, Kate's Kitchen, out in the Haight district of San Francisco, is worth planning her year around. "The crowds on the weekend can be quite daunting," she says, "so I always devote at least one of my vacation days each summer and one each December to a visit to Kate's." She rhapsodizes about biscuits and gravy that are "almost as good as Mom's" and advises, "If you want refinement, sophistication, cutting-edge food, Kate's is not the place for you." Kate's is at 471 Haight Street; (415) 626-3984.

A month before Disneyland opened in 1955, Harvey Belisle opened his restaurant in adjacent Garden Grove, California. Both are still going strong, and both are known for large-scale amusements. Disneyland has its Matterhorn, toontown, and Star Tours; Belisle's has Don's Special Omelette (bacon, ham, meat loaf, bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, chilies, and mushrooms smothered in cheese and topped with half an avocado) and Texas (Style) Breakfast (a 26-ounce steak, a dozen eggs, pancakes, hash browns, and gravy). In a massive understatement, reader Dianna Hess of Boulder, Colorado, cautions breakfasters, "You'd better be hungry!" Belisle's is at 12001 Harbor Boulevard; (714) 750-6560.

Finally, consider Nancy Mulkerin's praise for Mesilla Valley Kitchen, in her home-town of Las Cruces, New Mexico. It fits neither the big food nor the big city category, but sounded too good not to include: "The green breakfast burrito, smothered in wonderfully just-right, spicy green chile sauce, is my favorite. My husband loves the huevos rancheros; they are just tangy enough to cause a minor sweat on the brow." Mesilla Valley Kitchen is at 2001 E. Lohman, in the Arroyo Plaza Mall; (505) 523-9311.