Category Archives: Breakfasts

Breakfasts

Rise and Shine

The sun rises from the East. Another lovely day in Central Florida.

Must be time for breakfast.

We visited Rise and Shine at 20430 East Pennsylvania Avenue in Dunnellon on 29 January 2011. We’ll drive hundreds of miles for breakfast. We’re that kind of dedicated.

A special treat today: Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom is with us. You know a beautiful young mother of two is hungry when she’ll give up sleeping in on a Saturday morning so she can go have breakfast.

The savvy Tampa Bay Breakfasts reader is feeling odd. Feeling like all this has happened before, maybe in a parallel dimension of time and space. Well, your feelings are well founded. Rise and Shine recently replaced Local Legends, which we visited back in March 2010.

legends-outside

For being more-or-less a breakfast-themed place, we found the menu to be sort of short. Not bad, just one page of large type and the first reaction was “short.” The other side of the menu was lunch.

If this were an album cover for Mötörhead, I’d be Lemmy.

Mom and Marek and me, we got some coffee.

We got Ivo ready for the conveyor belt of food he requires. Yesterday he ate a jar of food. The whole jar, it wasn’t even open. It was just sitting on the high chair tray, I turned to get a spoon, and it was gone. The metal lid was hanging out his mouth and he was munch-munch-munching away like a goat.

This is Marek. His hair is turning darker. Soon, time will ravish him like it has his old man. But for now he’s still a cute little kid.

Breakfast came for Ivo early. And I know you’re all jealous, but I paid extra for this haircut. And now I wear Lightning McQueen t-shirts. I used to wear Mötörhead t-shirts, but then I had kids.

Breakfast came on time for Marek, Andy, and Mom I’ll get to everything else in a moment, but I can’t hold out on this: These home fries were the worst I ever had, there, I said it and I feel better.

Marek put the kung-fu-grip on some bacon before teaching a pancake a lesson.

Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom had some French toast. She did not, however, say, “Oh lah lah, mon petit dejunes.” So it wasn’t really all THAT French. She got grits for Ivo, but he was ambivalent about the concept.

While I was busy setting up the above shot, taking an Ansel Adams approach to composition and framing, Ivo yoinked my pancakes.

Who likes to ham it up at breakfast? Mom does! Mom does! You’d expect Marek to be saying “take my picture dad!” But it’s all mom doing that.

Ivo gets a top-off of baby-juice. That would be pancakes, bacon, eggs, and milk, blended together. As you can see, the inside of Rise and Shine is shiny, clean, and doesn’t look at all like a sports bar.

What do you do after that kind of breakfast? If you’re Ivo, you just turn out the light and take a nap.

After we have breakfast, we usually have the Tampa Bay Breakfasts review pow-wow. Here, Mom, Marek, and Ivo are discussing the finer points of yoink.

The bill came. $22 and change for two large breakfasts (with an extra plate to split with Marek) is OK. Not super-cheap, but not terrible. Excepting that we’re in Dunnellon, not Tampa, so I’d sort of think it could be a little cheaper.

Marek paid the bill and came back with change. Note for the record books, today is The Day, the first day in two years of breakfasts, that Marek said for the first time that he was keeping some of the money. He gave me the bills and shoved the coins in his pocket. “What are you doing, Marek?” “I need money to buy a parachute, dad.”

A parachute.

No kidding, that is what he said.

And while he’s doing that, Ivo’s sucking a lemon. You probably have two questions going through your mind: “What?” and “Hunh?”

We wrapped up this morning’s breakfast and headed out to visit grandparents. The pancakes were quite good. The eggs were really wonderful, the strongest point of the breakfast. Bacon was OK, but odd, with some pieces slightly overdone and some slightly underdone, like the oven was unbalanced. Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom was not in love with the French toast (“mais, nous ne parlon pas François”). Marek seemed happy enough.

But the home fries.

Let’s be serious for a moment. I eat Army food on a sort of regular basis. It’s actually really good and tasty and well-prepared these days so that doesn’t count. I also eat bachelor-chow when I’m by myself at home, which consists of expired corned-beef hash poured on top of a $2 frozen pizza and washed down with Pabst and Tabasco. I went to many heavy metal concerts in my youth, and so my taste buds aren’t what they used to be. I give everything at least a few bites, “just in case” a taste-problem is me. I did not try a second bite of these homefries. I don’t like to disparage food, especially breakfast (heck, I don’t even complain when I’m sort of thinking we’re going to get shot at when we have breakfast in the hood in Tampa), but this was Not Good. I could have complained and sent it back, but with two kids we simply don’t have time for that sort of thing. These boys are like hand grenades where you pulled the pin and started counting and then got distracted by some Lady Gaga song and lost count — you don’t just sit around waiting for new homefries or you start getting kid-shrapnel flying.

Rise and Shine, you’re doing OK as a new breakfast place, but the home fries need some serious QC. We give the Rise and Shine a Tampa Bay Breakfasts three-pancake rating.

one-pancake1 one-pancake2 one-pancake3

Kopper Kitchen

The Country Market at the Flying J Truck Stop

Fresh

3 Replies

We’re driving ’round downtown Tampa. There’s some down-right lovely things to see, if you just look up.

We’re groovin’ to our old hometown buddy Tom. (We don’t actually know him personally, but if we did we’d buy him breakfast!) I bought Mojo at Vinyl Fever. It feels like an old friend is dying. We already lost Unique Video a couple years back and now this.

We’re driving by the old Tampa Theater.

We’ve got Marek.

We’ve got Ivo. (Bet you’re wondering how everyone fits in the Pancake Race Car!)

We’re parking in the vast construction site that is downtown Tampa.

‘Cause we’re going Fresh this morning. We visited Fresh at 507 North Franklin Street on 8 January 2011. Fresh has a web site at http://eatfreshdaily.com/.

They’ve some opening hours that defy the laws of physics. It’s not possible to be open 8 days out of 7. Is it? Think there’s some quantum funkytown going on here? I’m sure we’ll find out.

Inside is long and lovely and aesthetically pleasing. I’m curious why they’d have such a fine minimalist space and then resort to such a hyperbolitic word as “Emporium.” (We’re aware of the irony of calling them out on “Emporium” by using a word we just made up like “hyperbolitic.” Marek thinks that’s funny.)

Also, this morning, no people. But it’s early. Not everyone gets up at the crack-o-pancake like we do!

Here’s what brought us to Fresh. We’d heard that there was this mythical treasure mountain of cereal, and they do custom mixes just for you. That’s a lot of cereal. For our most loyal of readers, I hope you are not disillusioned to find that Marek actually has Fruit Loops 6 days a week.

Marek found us a spot. For some reason he found the table the longest distance away from the cereal towers. Spiteful, this kid is. And always with the ketchup these days. I don’t even know where he found that.

Remember that issue with the physics, the 8-days, and the suspected space-time-continuum problem? Let’s do an experiment. This is Quantum Duck.

Whoah. This place IS freaky. It appears that there are TWO Quantum Ducks. The one on the left is peering back at us from … The Eighth Day of the Week!

Ivo’ll take care of that pesky Quantum Duck and its fabric-of-time paradox. Errr, pair-a-ducks? He learned how to handle this sort of problem from Stephen Hawking.

But on to the breakfast.

Marek was going to have a pancake, but they only sold pancakes in stacks of three and wouldn’t break the set for us. More on this at the end of our review.

I had the Fruity mixed cereal, which was a lush mashup of Fruit Loops, Apple Jacks, and fresh fruit cut up. All served in this pseudo-Chinese-Takeout carton, which was interesting in its own right. Marek, for reasons related to him being three and sometimes very difficult, had actually already eaten this morning so he wasn’t really hungry, he just decided he wanted a pancake after he saw I had cereal. Then he just eyeballed me for a while.

Here’s a closeup.

Ivo moves in. He’s making a play for my breakfast! Ivo, by the way, is not actually drunk on cheap liquor in this picture.

Four months old, and already he’s eating my breakfast. I don’t know how he did that … he doesn’t even have teeth!

Marek says to me, he says, hey long chops, I’ve been doing this for going on two years now, so let’s give me the camera already, old man. I told him I’d only do it for a kiss. I’m that kind of mushy-love-my-kids-dad.

But, take a look at the hands around my neck. Is this some sort of mafia boss kiss of death?

So I hand Marek the camera, which double-duties as my mobile phone so now he’s going to answer if Mayor Iorio calls to ask our advice about what to serve for breakfast at her next Mayoral function (pancakes, ma’am).

And whuddyaknow? Kid took a good picture. How do you know he took it? You can see both my hands!

And he got a good snap of me and Ivo walking, too. Kid’s got skillz!

The bill was very mild. We didn’t have much, really, so I’d hope it’d be mild. Really neat and delishus cereal, a nice tall coffee, and an orange juice, all weighing in at $5.76.

On our way out we talked to Brian, who appeared to be the proprietor or manager. We were talking and chatting and he asks how it all was and I told him it was fine, except that I wasn’t really keen that we couldn’t get a singleton pancake for the boy. Apologetically, he admitted that today was the Very First Day that they were doing all this “real” breakfast stuff, and that, honestly, they did not have everything together in terms of pricing or portioning.

So he gave Marek a cookie. Please note that this cookie, if this photograph is to be believed, is approximately the size of Ole Mater Marek’s head.

I gave Brian our card and explained our Breakfast Mission. He suggested that maybe we ought come back to do a real review when they have it all smoothed out. That, and the cookie, flipped my attitude right around from the south side of neutral to the positive side of let’s-come-back. Also, Brian, while we were talking I left my to-go coffee cup on the counter by the register — sorry about that! We at Tampa Bay Breakfasts pride ourselves on being neat.

We walked back to the car. It’s a beautiful morning. While we were in Fresh a nice couple came in and were talking about a stair-climbing race. Turns out the American Lung Association has a fund-raiser that involves climbing the stairs to the top of the Bank of America building. I mentioned this to Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom and she said that sounded fun enough to sign up for. Also, good luck mystery girl we talked to at Fresh! The AIM Team (Andy, Ivo, Marek, natch), will cheer all y’all on from the pancake wagon downstairs.

Marek asked for that cookie when we got to the car. I handed it to him. Put the car in gear. Look over my shoulder. And it’s gone. That cookie was like two pounds, at least 37 inches in diameter, four inches thick. Well, maybe not, but it was a Big Cookie. Another physics mystery here.

We got home and rode bikes with the neighbors across the street. They’re all pretty numb to our Breakfast Celebrity status, so it’s normal stuff like “hey” and “whutzup” and “your kid just walks in my house to use the toilet all the time.” I’m sure J-Lo and her neighbors are the same way.

For our loyal readers in Canada, Europe, and Up North, it’s 8 January and about 70 degrees this afternoon. Don’t hate us because we’re beautiful.

Turns out our neighbors had chow at Fresh for supper last night. Their comment, which I agree with enough to repeat, is that the place is visually appealing and the food is quite good, but the flow of experience for the customer doesn’t make any sense. Thinking back, I spent a lot of time standing and walking back and forth, trying to figure out if I was supposed to order at the table or at the counter, and if at the counter, at what point (it’s a lot of counter). It wasn’t clear where to pay, as the register is tucked in behind a column and I didn’t notice it until we were leaving. I assumed we were supposed to bus our own table as there were trash bins by the door, but that wasn’t clear. I like to leave good Tampa Bay Breakfasts tips, but I walked out without doing so because it never seemed like there was a place or point or purpose to leave a tip. Our neighbors had the same feeling last night: good food, nice folks, lovely setting, yet I feel lost.

Our Tampa Bay Breakfast formal review of Fresh is: Deferred. Brian, we’ll cheerfully take your suggestion and come back in a few months to give a real review and rating once your breakfasts get in the groove.

Country Harvest

2 Replies

We visited the Country Harvest restaurant at 1285 S Missouri Ave in Clearwater on 2 January 2011. This was our first visit to the Country Harvest and our first breakfast of the new year. Country Harvest is a recommendation from TBB fan and Country Skillet owner Steve. Steve gives Country Harvest a top rating because it’s run by his brother Pat (he also pointed us to the Tin Can Cafe, run by his brother Jim — a family that understands the importance of breakfast!).

On our way out the door we ran into this ugly bug! It’s actually a female Acanthocephala femorata, but that didn’t stop us from talking for an hour about how the ugly bug was going to eat bad daddies, and also how I’m a bad daddy so I’d best watch out for the ugly bug.

We got to drive down MLK and past the Buc’s big HQ. That’s one big pirate flag!

I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our 2011 Tampa Bay ~~Buccaneers~~ Breakfasts lineup. On my right flank is Ivo on special teams, and on my left flank is Marek on offense. Not shown here is our Acanthocephala femorata, who is not actually on the team and has probably been eaten by a bird by now.

It’s a rainy day to drive across the bay. Marek reported seeing dragons. Then he said it was only clouds. I sort of liked it better when it was dragons.

We drove by Clearwater High School. My mother is a CHS graduate. She still remembers the school fight song.

Finally, after what seems like hours and hours (it’s just 40 minutes, but in little-kid-time, that’s like a decade), we get to Country Harvest. What a cheerful yeller building. It’s in a converted Bob Evans, but Country Harvest looks like the real deal. Marek is holding a sack of crazy. You’ll see what it is when we get inside.

Do you like my shirt? Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom got it for me for Christmas, so I could impress my friends. My peer group is a 3.5 year old. He was impressed.

Good menu, but no blueberry pancakes. That’s Wingo and Doc Hudson, by the way.

Sign of a really good place. As soon as you sit down they bring you muffins. Marek said in a nice, loud shout, “Muffins!” and proceeded to eat muffins and thus not eat his pancake later. They were good muffins, too! That’s Wingo, DJ, and Mac, by the way.

Ivo’s wearing his Snoopy shirt Evi and Wolfgang sent him for Christmas. Thanks, Wolfgang! It fits perfectly!

We had coffee, as is the tradition in our clan.

No real insight into the Country Harvest or breakfasts in general in this picture, I just like how Ivo’s such a giggly baby. Even when he’s sans-madre and subjected to all the slam and kaboom that is the dad-schedule.

Marek enjoyed his coffee. It was like having a quart of oil at Flo’s V-8 Cafe. That’s Doc, Wingo, Mac, Lightning, and DJ, by the way.

Having a baby makes this breakfast thing a little bit more logistically challenging. I have to bring baby food, for example. I used to have to do that with Marek, too, but that was before Tampa Bay Breakfasts became a world-leader in the cutting edge, high-profile, intensely stressful world of breakfast journalism. That’s Doc, Mac, Luigi, Snotrod, Lizzie, Lightning, my personal fav Guido, Wingo, and DJ, by the way.

Ivo’s getting peas today, but he hasn’t figured that out yet because he can’t read.

He does not like peas.

Marek is STILL eating muffins. Where’s the parents? Who just lets their kid run the show like this?

Inside Country Harvest is warm and spacious. And full of cops. When it comes to breakfast, we consider that to be a good sign.

Lightning McQueen is in serious trouble! Jelly collapse!

Lucky for Lightning, and for the rest of us, breakfast came. I stepped out of my usual bounds and got the Greek omelet, which I can report upon as being delicious. And also greasy and filling. The home fries were excellent, having that taste like they had been leftovers of leftovers and then mixed with onions (that sounds like I mean they were bad, but if you’ve ever made home fries you know, you don’t make good home fries with “fresh ingredients”). Ivo, as you can tell, was really loving the peas.

Marek got the pancake and bacon. The bacon disappeared promptly into the bacon black hole that is Marek’s jowls. He didn’t give the pancake much love, but I think that’s because he was already full of muffins. What kind of parent lets their kid fill up on muffins before breakfast?

Also, this was all served with a bottle of Cholula Sauce. I remember some military meals served long ago, where some of us had bottles of Cholula and would proceed to talk about how she was our wife, our mother, our secret lover. Basically, Cholula makes all food good.

Ivo didn’t like the peas, but he did enjoy his first ever wheat toast.

Ivo gets a top-off before we wrap up. Blended up pancake. Extra butter.

The bill weighed in at just under $14 clams for two whole breakfasts. That’s not the cheapest morning chow we know, but it’s not terrible either.

Marek jumped on in to pay the bill. He’s getting to be such a big boy, isn’t he?

And yet, he’s not so big a boy that he doesn’t bring back the change. It’s the best of all worlds!

Before we leave, Marek wants me to let you know that this is Snotrod.

Me and Marek (and also Ivo, who still doesn’t like peas) had quite a nice time. Though Marek did say he didn’t get a pop when he paid the bill. Not every place has pops, but try telling that to him!

Our first breakfast of 2011 was a success. The chow was delish, as Rachel Ray would say, the price was fine. The restaurant was really nice and the staff seemed to be friendly and professional. Except one waitress, who wasn’t ours, gave me some serious stink-eye when I sent Marek off to pay the bill. She obviously didn’t know that Marek’s a Proven Pancake Pro and has paid many a tab at mom-pop-pancake-shops. But still, it was a stink-eye, and we don’t usually get a lot of those. This is a great breakfast, well worth a visit, or two or three! We’re pleased to give the Country Harvest a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four pancake rating.

one-pancake one-pancake1 one-pancake2 one-pancake3

On the way home, we stopped at P.J.’s car lot. Daddy needs a new breakfast mobile, and I’m thinking this cherry ’69 Lincoln would really scratch that itch, momma! (Though in a pinch, I’d be OK with that wicked ’71 Mach 1 in front of her.)

Uh-oh! Time to get home to mom and tell her all about our busy breakfast morning!

2010 Breakfasts In Review

3 Replies

We saw a lot of pancakes in 2010. 41 breakfasts, of which 38 were non-repeats, this year. 85 total breakfast events since we started two years ago.

Breakfast

One of the highlights of the year was our invitation to the food blogger dinner at Taste of Safety Harbor.

We overcame problems with Breakfast Spiders.

Spiders

Sometimes, we just couldn’t make it out of the house.

Sometimes we just got lazy and had donuts.

And sometimes, Andy had to have breakfast by himself when he was out of town.

There were pops! Lots of pops!

Pops

A lot of times we just got sleepy after breakfast.

Naps

Any world-class professional has to cope with occupational hazards.

We jammed to good music.

And great music.

This isn’t a pancake!

We found that pepper is delicious on pancakes.

Some were really fun.

Most were really delicious.

There was no shortage of HFCS in our diets.

We never missed a chance for some strong, black coffee.

Marek usually paid the bill.

We had several celebrity guest stars involved with Tampa Bay Breakfasts.

Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom

Ivo, our newest team member

Jeff and Frankie, long-time TBB fans

Aleshea, the official poet of breakfast
Aleshea

Doug, Yankeetown town council member

Vicky, our favorite server of all time

Shelley, a fellow food blogger in Tampa

Arthur, long-time TBB fan

Sadly, several breakfast restaurants closed or stopped serving breakfast in 2010.

Aunti Donnas

Viet Asian

Local Legends

Hickory Island

4 January 2011 CORRECTION: Grecian Island is still alive and well! Marek was taking notes while I was driving, that’s all I can say.

~~Grecian Island~~

Through it all, we had fun sharing breakfasts with you, our Tampa Bay Breakfasts fans. See you in 2011!

The Samaria Cafe

The Front Porch

1 Reply

We re=visited The Front Porch restaurant at 12039 North Florida Avenue in Dunnellon on 26 November 2010. This was our 79th visit to the Front Porch and our second official Tampa Bay Breakfasts visit. I did grow up here, y’know.

We always love coming here. It’s a perfect family diner in a nice small town.

The menu is extensive and has all the right stuff on it. Today our favorite guest reviewer, Mom, and our new sidekick, Ivo, joined us for quality morning chow.

Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom obviously had her hands full there. She does things the “mom way,” which usually means being warm, loving, and inconveniencing one’s own self for the love of the child.

Dad’s just plop the kid down and jam in a bottle. Wham. Done. Next problem. With my other hand I’m actually changing the oil in Mom’s car.

Here’s how you know we’re not in the city. There aren’t any breakfast joints in Tampa that have shotgun shells on display at kid-head-level. At least, there’s not any place in Tampa that we’re aware of, and so far as I can tell, no one in the history of Tampa has ever visited as many breakfast spots as we have. We are the Benevolent Breakfasters, the Masters of the Morning Munch, the Perfect Pancake Posse. Oh, and also, we are Awesome Alliterators. And back to the shotgun shells, I think we heard someone say that it was the start of “gun season” ’round here. You know you’re back home when it’s gun season.

Mom and Marek get in a morning toast. You’d like to think that they’re toasting how much they love dad. I’d like to think that, too, but I know better.

Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom likes the hot chocolate. Marek does too. She shows her motherly love by spoon-feeding him. As the dad, I’m required to counter this behavior by making him make his own hot chocolate. Step 1: Go to South America and start picking cocoa leaves and make your own chocolate. Oh, and also, walk to South America. It builds character.

There’s a reason why little boys love moms most.

Today’s the Yankeetown Arts and Crafts Festival. I dressed appropriately. I was the only person I saw all day wearing one of these high-quality custom t-shirts. I did get some compliments on my ability to keep milking a political issue that is effectively yesterday’s news.

We got saved from hearing more about grassroots political activities and open source software, because here came breakfast!

Bacon. Good bacon, too. And pancakes. Good pancakes. Notice how the Front Porch also brings you honey. I like honey. Buzzzzzz.

Marek dug on into these pancakes, and the bacon too. Did you ever wonder, dear TBB fans, how I get such good action shots of Marek eating? It’s because I send him to bed without supper the night before, to ensure he’s going to be hungry the next morning. Did you ever wonder about the difference between “ensure” and “insure?” Did you ever wonder about which is correct, to put a punctuation mark inside or outside the quotation marks when a sentence ends in a quotation mark, like the previous sentence did?

You can see his joy at being the star of the show this morning. What a good attitude … it’s like he’s 3 going on 17.

About 12 clams for breakfast for three. The price is right down here in Funnellon. Marek declined to pay the bill. More of that 3 going on 17 thing. We’ll grow out of it. Won’t we? I hope?

The Front Porch remains one of our all-time favorites. It’s very local. The food is consistently good. It’s a classic small-town, home-town place. The price is very right. And also, they have good pie. We’re pleased to confirm The Front Porch’s Tampa Bay Breakfasts rating of four and a half pancakes.

one-pancake one-pancake1 one-pancake2 one-pancake3 half-pancake

The Loading Dock

1 Reply

Happy Veterans Day and thank you to all our service members. This morning we’re bridging the old and the new in Tampa. It’s nice to be home from our recent exotic breakfast.

We visited the Loading Dock at 100 Madison Street on 11 November 2010. They have a nice web site at http://myloadingdock.com/. They’re only open Monday through Friday so it’s taken a long time for us to get here. Our usual breakfasts tend to be on the weekends, which is a clear case of work getting in the way of the important things, like pancakes.

Also, we have to tell you up front, they didn’t have pancakes.

We have plenty of nice things to say about the Loading Dock, but none as jaw-dropping as this door. No kidding, the door is at least 12 feet tall!

Did I mention that there’s no pancakes? Now, it’s not really the Loading Dock’s fault. This is clearly a grab-n-go breakfast for downtown Tampa’s business set, and grab-n-go pancakes are just, well, lousy. But all three of my morning breakfast partners had a “what, no pancakes?” reaction. Shown here: Ivo, simply distraught that he’s not going to get a bottle of high-fructose corn syrup this morning.

Can you spot the three beautiful elements in this photograph? Look at that massive brick work. Look at those heavy timbers up top. Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom surely is beautiful!

As we’ve already hinted, the menu is very grab-n-go oriented. Wraps, sandwiches, and the like. Nothing wrong with that so long as you’ve not got your heart set on pancakes, which both Heather and Marek did. One thing I can say is that the midday menu looks really robust; I bet this is a really wonderful place for lunch or an after-work beer-and-a-snack. If only I worked across the street, I’d be able to tell you more on that.

Here’s something we look for: Mom-n-pop-ness in a restaurant. Mom is obviously Karen and pop is obviously Sean, right on the menu. Now seriously, we don’t really want to be having breakfast in someone’s living room with dogs and cats and dirty laundry and toys and I’ll-vacuum-next-week, but we do really want to feel like we’re in a place that matters to someone. When the proprietors put their names, emails, and phone numbers on the menu, it tells us right out that this is a labor of love and they actually care about how we feel: That’s what defines the “mom-n-pop” concept. This little corner of the menu is worth a half-a-point bonus on the final rating.

Marek was minding his own beeswax and along came some hairy old freaky guy who mugged him with kisses. Shown here: Marek trying to stop giggling long enough to get away.

Breakfast was delivered in accordance with (in military jargon, that’s just “IAW”) the sandwich shop mentality. Baskets, to-go cups. Plastic ware. Marek had the hashbrowns, which he refused to try because he’s sometimes like that (| sed -e ‘s/sometimes/always/’) (That last one is a special joke that only the nerdliest 1% of our readers will get, but they’ll get it 99%’s worth).

Favorite Guest Reviewer Mom had an egg sandwich.

I had a spicy breakfast wrap. I’m not here to brag or anything, but I taught this wrap a lesson. It was delicious!

This nice lady came by and scooped up Ivo. She had a case of “baby-itis.”

The “scooping up” turned into “abducting and putting him to work in the kitchen.” Hey, that’s how Marek got started. This was Ivo’s first official breakfast abduction.

Marek had juice today instead of his usual coffee. Look at those timbers in the ceiling! The Loading Dock was, actually, the loading dock for the department store that was in this building in 1907. The 100-year-old features are everywhere in this space, but most notably in the ceiling. The care to preserve these historical aspects really make this a fascinating space.

13 clams for three breakfasts. That’s not bad at all.

Marek paid the bill. He doesn’t have his own credit cards yet, and I didn’t have 13 dollars to give him, and he didn’t have his own cash either. I had to take this picture twice as the first time would have broadcast my credit card number across the Internet in a blaze of stupid. Marek pointed this out to me.

This was pretty hilarious. Marek knew she was up there but she didn’t know he was down there. It’s not every day that a 3-year-old sidles up to the bar to pay the bill ’round here. Our main man Marek got the job done, as usual.

And then he came back with this enormous cookie. Really, it’s like a snack for a whole family (which, honestly, is exactly what happened to it!).

This photograph has absolutely no breakfast-related value at all. Unless you think that Ivo’s so cute you could eat him up. But if you think that and you also think “breakfast” then you’re really sort of thinking about actually consuming him in a dietary sense, which is very perverse. I’m going to assume when you think “eat him up” that you’re thinking in metaphor, as I am.

After breakfast we took full advantage of today’s holiday status. As an authentic veteran, I did what every veteran really wants to do on Veterans’ Day: I took my three year old to Dinosaur World.

Where he and his mother were promptly eaten. Easy come, easy go, I guess.

The Loading Dock was a very unique, interesting, and friendly place. I don’t think we can say that breakfast is really its core competency, at least not breakfast in the traditional sense. The price was right, the chow we had was delicious, but it’s really the friendly folks, the heartfelt sense one gets from the menu and web page, and the 100-year-old building that tip this breakfast over the edge from a 3 or 3.5 to a 4. We’re pleased to give The Loading Dock a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four pancake rating.

one-pancake

Just For You

1 Reply

Marek was unable to join me for breakfast this weekend, for reasons that are related to Kung Fu Tacos. We’re going to do a breakfast with Ivo and some friends anyway, because we know our Tampa Bay Breakfasts readers demand no less than perfection.

Did I mention Kung Fu Tacos? If you’re wondering if we’re in San Francisco, you might be on to something.

We visited Just For You at 732 22nd Street in San Francisco on 9 November 2010. They have a very nice web site at http://www.justforyoucafe.com/. Also, check out how Mapquest did a complete redesign since our last posting. The old links are still supported, which is a bit of a relief.

Inside is a perfect little breakfast nook. Cozy, inviting, slightly eclectic, and above all, friendly. We sat in a cool window booth. Not shown here: The window booth.

We were joined by our old friend Rene! Note that “old” as an adjective modifies the noun “friend” and not the proper noun “Rene.” Also note the delicious chicory coffee we’re slurping this morning. Delish!

We’re also breaking bread with Ivo and Mia.

What? That’s not the Ivo you expected? I hope we get to hear more of this story. After all, how many people named “Ivo” can there possibly be in America?

Great menu, with lots of California flair. I decided to ask for a “Cow Girl.” The guy said “OK.” Then I asked for some pancakes, bacon, eggs. He told me that that was a cowgirl. Sad. I was hoping to see some big Texas hats.

When breakfast came, it came wrapped in delicious! Mighty slabs of bacon, almost like strips of ham. Good, big pancakes. Tasty eggs. More coffee, too. This is good eatin’.

Mia is Ivo’s little girl. She’s never met Marek but we figure they’re still young, so there’s plenty of time for her to turn him down when he asks her out. Ivo’s the inspiration for the name we gave Marek’s little brother Ivo. And he’s a gosh-darned nice guy, too.

Rene and I started working on the same day for a company two jobs back for me and one job back for her. Coming to Just For You was actually Rene’s idea. Any Tampa Bay Breakfasts readers who are enjoying this San Francisco Treat should thank Rene from saving you from a TBB review of the airport snack bar.

There’s more than one kid who likes pancakes. Mia is like a female Marek, but without all the little cars flying across the table.

The bill came. I’m not going to lie to you. San Francisco is not Tampa. It could have been worse, and was probably cheap by local standards. We left our calling card and I had a teary moment missing my breakfast sidekick (he probably thinks I’m HIS sidekick).

Excellent food, delicious coffee, cozy and cute location, lots of neighborhood regulars. Rene, Mia, and The Original Ivo pushed this one over the edge and made it great. I’m voting for Marek by proxy and giving Just For You a Tampa Bay Breakfasts four and a half pancake rating. Which does not actually count towards Tampa Bay Breakfast of the Year since you can’ hardly get farther away from Tampa than this.

one-pancake one-pancake1 one-pancake2 one-pancake3 half-pancake