Not the worst... but..

So today for breakfast I'm flying semi solo, what I mean by that is , MSue is out of town but Ken and Val were still game, so hey, gotta eat, right? Anyhoo they picked me up at the crack of 8:45 and we were off. About a month ago MSue and I, with some friends attended an auction at Emerald Downs , on the way in I noticed a sign advertising "Best Breakfast in Town" open to the public. Amid the Horse stables that make up the north end of the racing facility and what looks to be security offices was another sign that read "Quarter Chute Cafe" With a sign like that hey, gotta try it out ! Well this is the start of horse racing season up here so there was a lot of action in and around this place, Horse and trainers all very busy, and in the middle of all this a pretty good sized Cafeteria. Yep a Cafeteria, no real table service, normally I wouldn't go for this sort of thing, I'm no snob, but there has not been a lot of happy endings for me after such trips. But we were there and with no other plans "what the heck" We pushed on and in to the line. Ordering is done at the counter, Val was first , she ordered Joes Special,I dont know Joe personnaly but he has food at almost every restaurant I've been in, then it was Kens turn ,Corn Beef hash and eggs for him "todays special at 4.95" Wow! what a bargain! I ordered CFS ,eggs over med. it came with browns and toast , soooo we slide our trays toward the end of the line, grab our beverage, and pay. Well I dont know if it was a good or bad sign that our food arrived almost before we sat down,but it did come quickly, { thats what she said!} almost too fast for my liking . So there we were plastic chairs and all ready to eat. In all fairness this cafeteria is set up for trainers and other horsey types, in another room there was pool tables and what looked to be sort of a bar. Best in Town is a big statement to make and while I did eat all my food and have suffered no ill effects from my experiance, maybe Emerald Downs is the town , but if they wer talkin best in town, meaning Auburn, I would most enfatically disagree! It was ok , the coffee was ok, self serve and all and I only had one cup. I will admit that while the food was not great, we did get to see a lot of the horses and trainers heading out to the track for some excercise ,that was pretty cool, some of those thouroughbreds are awfully big and to see em close up was fun. The Quarter Chute Cafe serves a purpose for those in the business of Horse racing, But as far as a destination stop for breakfast.... not so much!

True Blue!

Tried and true, The Chelan comes through! The Chelan Cafe, a little place on Spokane st. underneath the West Seattle bridge continues to put out a quality breakfast time and time again, and whats more , its relatively cheap {Big reason it's one of the B-fast fours favs} I dont really know how long the Chelans been in business,but it's been there as long as I can remember. It's always crowded , parking can be a challenge,but it's always worth it! I decided on friday doggonnit! that I was having pancakes on our sunday quest, and when I think pancakes , I think Chelan. I dont know what it is about em and I know people tend to think pancakes arn't that big a deal but if youre a pancake kinda guy like me, then you need to put the Chelan on your breakfast list. It's not just the p-cakes that brings the hungry four back to that little cafe time and time again no no no, every thing we've tried for breakfast there has been great , The CFS is very good, light and crispy with good country gravy, and speaking of gravy their sausage gravy for their biscuits is damn near as good as homemade, Eggs benny is good good good, great browns too.Soooo as I ramble on about what is no doubt one of my favs, and one of West Seattles favs to,as it was voted "Best Breakfast 2009 in West Seattle" I am not surprised. Today after a 10 minute wait, we were seated beneath the many maritime signs and mementos that is the decor of the Chelan ,ready to dig in. Yep , small oj for Val and her partner Hot Tea Ken, yawn... but they like what they like. Ken had the "Country Benedict" Two biscuits with patty sausage ,scrambled eggs all smothered and covered with your choice of Country gravy or Sausage, Ken elected for the latter, he decided after the fact that if he ordered it again he would choose the country style, but he polished it off and had that satisfied look only a Chelan breakfast brings. MSue had Eggs benny with her egg scrambled well done, she likes her eggs that way and sometimes the waitstaff gets abit confused, that she only wants one egg to split over the muffins instead of the usual two. It works out good for me though cuz I ordered the Pancake Sandwich, which is two big cakes one egg and choice of meat. I chose the sausage patty for little extra charge and I like my eggs over medium and since Msue only wanted 1 egg they gave me her other one,what a deal aye? and when you order your eggs they are always perfect at the Chelan I dont know, maybe its me, but I think the cook there sure knows his way around a fried egg! outstanding as usual! Val also had the Pancake sammy but she had hers with blueberries, egg scrambled, side o ham . Yummy Times for sure! Wait I know what your thinking... He found the perfect place, no need to go anywhere else, not true! for the cup o jo at the Chelan I'm afraid is sadly below par although I keep ordering it it never gets any better, the food is good and they have Ice tea thank goodness for that,the last place didn't. and for Msues and my breakfast the bill was just some change over 20 bucks, Ken and Vals was under that! Now keep in mind the Chelan is not one of those places, where you bring tons o leftovers home, no the portions are not ginormous but quality before quantity is my choice every time. Yeppers, The Chelan Cafe one of our favs although usually followed by a trip to Starbucks!

Pretty good Jo!

Well Sunday is here at last! "back to the blog" Today the destination for the hungry four was Glo's a little and I mean little cafe just on the edge of Capital hill on Olive. Ken and I dropped the girls off out front and we tried to find to find a place to park. Now if you've ever attempted to park on or around Capital hill you know that if you decide to park where its posted not to, you will immediatly be put to death! but we lucked out and found a spot within walking distance
Glo's like I said is tiny but they pour you a cup of coffee and let you stand outside to wait your turn, how nice! We didn' t have to wait much more than 10 minutes and we were seated, darn lucky again because once we were seated it appeared the entire population of Cap hill was waiting their turn to injest some of Glo's grub. Yep, same ol same ol , the tatooed Waitress brought me a coffee,Ken had hot tea, Val had her use, small oj. M Sue ordered Ice Tea w/lemon and the reply was "sorry " no ice tea... WHAT ? ooohhh she was not happy at all but she smiled and said water will be fine. Well for a tiny place,Glo's had quite the menu, Val ordered "Eggs Blackstone" kind of a Benedict with spinach instead of the meat, the eggs were poached well and it was served with browns plenty , a pretty big plate of food! She Liked it. Ken had "Eggs Nicholas" a scrambley sort of thing withs sausage and veggies He liked his as well l but they did forget his toast ,no big deal really, there was plenty of food .I ordered the "Huevos Rancheros" Three eggs over easy piled with beans, avocado,onions ,black olives,jalapenos and cheese all on top of corn tortillas, "most delicious" my quest for the great breakfast and the great coffee could have ended here , for both were excellant! Not so fast Bloggerinas, I have'nt mentioned M Sues food yet, My lovely Wife was a bit perplexed as too what she wanted , The Biscuits and gravy or a Scramble or one of the Benedicts that Glo's is apparently famous for, which was some info she said she wish she had before she ordered. She decided on the Biscuits , cuz I kinda talked her into it. You see Glo's Gravy is not Sausage it's a veggie based mushroom gravy,that while it looked good, she did not care for it! I'm sure there are some vegy folks out there that probably would like it ...but as far far as M Sue was concerned ,"not so much" Well I'll tell you there are a few things I have learned over the years about dining out with my bride of lo these many years and one of them is you should have Ice tea with lemon and plenty of it and you dont take the sausage out of the gravy!! I mean really, Veggie gravy, please! But all in all good food ,and whats more really good coffee! The coffee is from a company called Pegasus, they are on Bainbridge Isl. We all decided we would go again to Glo's, MSue would of course order differantly.

Fishermans Wharf ?

Last weekend I referred to our destination as Fishermans Wharf... { stupid ,stupid} Fishermans Terminal is the right term I believe, I must have San Francisco on my mind, sorry "my bad" But while I have your attention I feel I must say something about Fremont Coffee Roasters, the only thing Starbucks has over these guys is numbers. Great Coffee I must say.. and in a real cup! If somehow I could've brought my breakfast in there with me my quest perhaps would be fulfilled . A must try if in Fremont!

Troutasaurus

Well,no Sunday Breakfast actually this sunday,we were out of town,Although plenty of food was consumed and drinks flowed freely.... and we did eat breakfast, just at a friends house.Soo no review this week,.. well except that I did go fishing! and I did catch the biggest trout in my life, oh did I mention it was huge? cuz it was really big. It was a Triploid Rainbow, out of Rufous Woods Lake just out side of Bridgeport wa. This fish was fat as a football weighing in at least 10 lbs, yes Troutasaurus lives!... well not anymore cuz We Smoked that fat sucker! Big Fish, let me tell you. It looked like a Sockeye all filleted out . Yes there will be pictures, as soon as get them from my friend in Wenatchee, He calls himself ucatchem charters and for good reasons. A beautiful day, dead calm morning and the biggest trout I ever caught. All around a pretty good day. I missed one bite, so I was bound and determined to not miss the next one if I got the chance. The great beast hit hard, then pulled steadily ,fighting for it's freedom but it was all for not. when we saw it turn over in the water it looked like a garbage can lid with fins, not much fight in it though which was probably a good thing cuz once in the boat the line broke. Yeh yeh yeh Big Damn Fish alright I will post Pictures! So next weekend back to the restautant scene but I just had say something about this weekend , Thanks Jim and Lisa, Good times

Fishermans Wharf

February 28th 2010, A quick introduction I think would be appropriate. We the members of Sunday Breakfast are as follows; Jim {thats me!} My Wife;Mary Sue,we shall refer to her as M Sue,and our partners in crime or culinary conspirators, if you will,Ken and Val,we shall refer to them as Ken and Val. at first I thought it would be cute to refer to us as our usual beveridge , Ken would be Hot Tea, and his lovely wife Val would be forever known as small oj. BUUUt M Sue did not want to be known as Ice tea with lemon,soooo. M Sue ,Ken and Val we are ,and will remain. I admit that it's a bit unfair to expect the Diners we visit after enjoying a cup of jo of my own creation or my usual grande drip from "Bucks"to compete so I will try to go coffeeless until breakfast is served,I said I'll try. Off to Fishermans Wharf {we live in Federal Way}we go Sun am right about the crack of 930,it is sunday after all ,a day of rest ,I needs me
beautysleep, Nuff said . Our quest is the Bay Cafe and Ken with me {The Human Compass} ridin shotgun, had no problem guiding the Crv to the perfect parking spot in front of Diner we seeked. The ladies hopped out to snag a table or elbow a few slow pokes out of the way and we were seated immediately. I got to tell you I was abit taken aback when I read the "Daily Specials" on our way to our table, there were others on there ,I'm sure but all I saw was "grilled oysters"and eggs.So much for checking out what appeared to be an impressive b-fast menu, I was sunk! Oysters for Breakfast? Heck yeh I ordered em, and they were awsome! 6 of the plump beauties served with eggs over medium and what are reputed to be the best browns in town.Ok thats quite a claim, best in town!, I dont know bout that but pretty darn good browns they were. Enough about my food, oh yeh the coffee was ok,although bottmless it was typical diner type jo. M Sue had Chicken Fried Steak,Hashbrowns extra crispy,Eggs scrambled well done ,side of salsa. She said all was good, I tasted her steak and I concurred, although I believe my Bride prefers country gravy on her CFS , this came with sausage ,it was still pretty good. Ken had a Corned beef Omelette, w/browns and Rye toast, he couldn't eat it all .Val had some sort of Seafood mixed eggy thing with hollandaise, she could not finish hers either but said it was yummy! The help was very good ,if not a little wise acrey, they were impressed we came all the way from Federal Way,Soooo Best in town I dont know , but I do know it was darn good and we will go back ! I mean Oysters for cryin out loud! {and besides they have Oysters Benedict HELLO!!} gotta try that.

Summary

I've been thinking of doing this for some time,the Blog that is, and what I think this should be is just a summary of what my wife and I and two of our close friends {Although at times there are more than just the two} have discovered about eating breakfast out, in and around the Seattle area. We make no claim to be professional critics, none of us are in the foodservice business. We do however possess a love for food, a passion for friendship and the desire to experiance both simultaneously. We often eat dinner and sometimes lunch out as well but breakfast is the fav! That being said, Of all the breakfast places we have visited{and there have been quite a few},and of all the fine coffee establishments that are in the greater seattle area, very few offer both. There are some ,I'm sure,and we or I specifically {as I am the only coffee drinker in the group } are bound an determined to find " the spot". Anyway, that is my quest or purpose if you will, to find the Perfect Breakfast and the Best Coffee in one eatery