Ginormous Cinnamon Rolls... and...

We've been talking about visiting the Maltby Cafe for some time, I mean for cryin out loud everyones heard of it , every paper has written about it, Best Breakfast this and best breakfast that. So we the, Famished Four (FF) decided it was time. We got up earlier than usual... no really,about 7:00 am,got rollin rounda bout 8 . We set the GPS for our quest and Msue and I whisked away to pick up Smoj and Ol Hot T. Now I'd like to blame the GPS, I really would... but it took us a bit longer than expected to arrive at the Maltby Cafe,maybe it was the confusion between the difference between hwy 520 and 522,(I took 520), re calculating route , re calculating route, blah ,blah ,blah. We did arrive however late, and with the help of and old friend of mine,(havent seen him in about 10 years) Kenny McCoy, he met us there and put our name on the list. Kenny lives in Snohomish, and we talk from time to time, it was great to see him all beit for such a short time as he had a prior engagement in Bellingham, a nieces birthday, I believe. We'll get together again soon I hope. Ok about the Cafe , it is in the basement of the old Maltby Gymnasium, not really a very big place, but it sure was packed,we had a 15 to 20 minute wait, not to bad really. This Place was kinda homey, friendly staff, gift shop,yep all o that. It smelled like your moms house at breakfast time mmmm kinda bacony,cinnamony, coffee all rolled into one. We were seated and immediatly beveraged... Ol Hot T and Smoj were'nt foolin anyone, yep T and OJ for them,IceT w/lemon for Msue, and I of course had Coffee (really?) It arrived... I took a sip... oh my... it was really good ( oh man it was Starbucks) I thought well thats it.. no more searching for me, this is it, the coffee was great, and the food, by the looks of this joint was gonna be off the hook! The Maltby Cafe is famous for their Huge Cinnamon Rolls, we ordered 1 for the table, MSue and I split a quarter of that gihugent ,sweet, sticky thang. Yep pretty good it was, although driving that far for one ? not so sure. Smoj ordered the "Tuscan Scramble" kind of an italian type affair... kinda like pizza eggs, (tomatoes, sausage, onions, peppers, olives and cheese) along with it came their homemade red potatoes (awsomealicious) and 2 giant slices of toast , (Homemade also) it really looked good, she said it was, half of it went home with her, Msue followed suit, yep same thing for her but without the olives, and a side o salsa . Hot T ordered the Sausage and egg plate, which consisted of scrambled eggs, sausage patties,and Biscuits and Gravy,... Wow what a plate o grub, pretty darn good gravy I gotta say, I did sneak a taste , well he offered , lets just say he took some home as well. I along with my delicious coffee ,ordered their country style Eggs Benedict, one of their homemade biscuits split with 3 eggs (me likey) chunk o ham and all covered with hollandaise and and all snuggled up with the same red potatoes, yep pretty darn good all round fill ya up grub. Best ever? I dunno, but it was pretty good, the coffee was probably the best part though, the service was great! We all concurred we would go back,although it was quite a haul up there. we shouldnt' really complain cuz once we figured out where it was , the drive home wasn't too bad . It did have autographs of celebritys througout the place, The one of JP Patches brings it all home baby... yeh Julius Pierpont Patches ate there!!! just cuz o that I'll go back!!! pretty good coffee and JP !

Still the Best!

Well blogomaniacs , seems like I've been slacking on the ol Blog lately...according to Smoj anyway, I have not blogged on joints previously visited. Val finally read the blog and was wondering since we eat every Sunday, why then was there not some notice of noshing on certain days, well I sez...cuz, I didn't feel it necessary to repeat, you know been there done that! Well I was soundly out voted, so's, I'm gonna tell ya all about The Chelan Cafe again. Hot T and Smoj drove this time, we left a little earlier than the usual time of ninish and were on the road rounda bout 830ish. You see there was a football game on, you might remember the Seahawks, I wanted to get back home in time to watch at least part of the game. This is how breakfast works with us and normally it aint no thing, the drive to the Chelan is about 20 to 25 minutes, another 5 to ten to wait for a table at the Chelan, once seated, another 2 to 3 to order, maybe ten to 15 more for our food to arrive. once it arrives another 20 to 25 to consume it...it was gonna be close, another 5 to look at the bill, you know debit or cash, how much tip etc. As you can see we've already missed the kickoff, but I forgot the most important part, the time M-sue and Smoj take to yak! or as they say visit, please, they've known each other for years! but...yak they do for at least 15 minutes, what cha gonna do? what can you do? it is what it is. We did however get food, maybe I should tell you about that. We got right in, no waiting, odd...there was a GAME on afterall, M-sue had Bacon and Eggs scrambledwelldonesideosalsa, yes its one word, plus a side of Biscuits and some of the best sausage gravy in town and Ice T w/lemon mmmmm good! Smoj ordered Chef Eddy's special, consiting of two delicious hotcakes ,1 egg how you like, plus meat o choice (Ham), OJ naturally to wash it all down, she scarrfed it all, she did...wonderful meal she exclaimed! Ol Hot T had the BBIT (best breakfast in town) cute huh? a scramble consisting of most of the meats on the menu, plus onions, peppers, cheese and browns all mixed up, plus toast and of course Hot Tea to finish it off. As for me, well I had my Hangover breakfast, although no hangover was involved, yep Country Benedict for me! Two Biscuits, two slabs of patty sausage, two scrambled eggsters.....wait for it..... and all covered with that same sausage gravy, plus browns baby! although I should add, it comes with Country gravy, the sausage gravy is a buck 90 xtra, Hell yeh! its that good, all swilled down with average jo, but plenty of it! So Smoj! I did it, I wrote about it again, not that your gonna read it any time soon. The Chelan is close to the best around, It's a Famished Four Fav(FFF) It should be a stop for everyone who enjoys a good breakfast at a decent price. We will go back, oh yes we will, buuutt.......I wont get so wordy next time.

Best of the Blog!

I guess we've ate at enough places, Ive drank at least 30 gallons of so-so Jo,so I spose its time to let all the faithful followers of the Famished Fours Sunday feedings, you know ,what we liked ,didn't like... Yada Yada! To be perfectly honest, I dont think any place that we have been was awful... just some were not up to our expectations, so heres some of what we thought were the highs, and a few of the lows. First off,all four of us like these joints just cuz the food is good,the coffee at the top four places never really got above ok... but the grub is so good... Any way here goes, Topping off the list... Numero uno.. has got to be The Chelan Cafe! for the plain reason we've gone there more than any other place, thats got to say something,yes the food is great, not huge portions, but enough. The service is excellant, they make a decent blood mary and its fairly easy to get to. In my opinion they have the best pancakes, but all the grub is good, and my recommendation for the best "hangover breakfast" Their Country Benedict.. English muffins topped with sausage patties.then scrambled eggs all topped with their sausage gravy mmmm.. mm! Number 2, 3 and 4 in line I gotta say are all tied for 2nd place really, for different reasons we all like these places. Pete's Egg Nest in Greenwood, great food .. A Big selection of Benedicts, and a different Scramble to please even the most pickiest of eaters..{Smoj} They definately are in the running for the most food on a plate award, their staffed by what appears to be family who care about their food and service, and your dining experience, the only draw back to Petes for me is that its in Greenwood and I dont always like to drive that far, but when we do it always seems worth it!Browns Point Diner could be in the running with the Chelan, BPD is Pretty basic ,with the exception of an outstanding Monte Cristo San, my frikkin goodness its good, and in my humble opinion might just be the best Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs Benny around. The Bay Cafe at Fishermans Terminal is a bit of a drive but well worth the fuel in my opinion for the plain simple reason They have Oysters for breakfast,Man what a concept. The Bay Cafe is staffed by what I would call the best of the best as far as service goes, coffee and Tea .. never empty Ice T refills.. never have to ask! and quite possibly the best hashbrowns ever! So those are the Restaurants we like the best... but there are some others who put out a fair feedbag in their own right Individual Fare kinda goes like this.. Since I am the only coffee drinker in the bunch {weird huh?} Numerus Unus has gotta Be Senor Moose in Ballard, Great Jo might be worth it to me to go back just fot the Coffee, food by wide concensus of the FF not so much. Number 2 Jo was Glos on Capital Hill, Pegasus was the brand I believe, food was weird, coffee great! everyone else tied for third thus my opinion that most people when they're eating dont care about the coffee as long as its hot and plentiful. The most Disappointing ,and I think this was unanimous, The Portage Bay Cafe {Ballard Locale} for the reason that everything that I had heard from friends and from reviews was that this was place to go! Long Waits and so so food doesn't cut it, even the organic ketchup sucked! honorable mentions gotta go to Draftchoices in Covington, their CFS is outsanding and their hoemestyle taters Scrumdidly! Voula's Offshore Cafe { Went there today}Their Scrambles and Hobos are so big and good that MSue gets two lunches out of em everytime I again had the Big Voula, which consisted of a plate of very good browns topped with 3 eggasauruses over perfect ,2 bacon, 2 greek sausage mmm , good burpin later!! Another place that needs to be mentioned is Dixies in Sumner! Good food ? Yes! Great Sausage gravy, and their Dads Potatoes, well you just gotta have those, sliced like Cottage fried, but cooked like frenchfries, Darn Tasty! its loud in there but the food is good , also family run, which seems to be a good thing . Best view has gotta be Lowells at the Pike Place Market, food is good, a little spendy, they also have oysters {Hangtown Fry} Dungeness Crab Benny and a darn fine Blood Mary or Caesar {clamato} So I guess that bout wraps it up, Will I Blog again? Yeppers I will!, the format may change a bit , maybe some pics or illustrations ,I do skip a week here or there but since we go to some of our favs multiple times and Quite franky MSue and Smoj dont vary much in what they order, I figured why? But Smoj thinks there should be some record de chew... so I shall comply. 2011 should be fun There are a lot of Cafes and Diners we have yet to try, and there is lot Jo De Blah I have yet to swill, and who knows maybe I'll find that magic place , where great coffee and great food coexist ....I'll keep Looking