Breakfast in America

Rosemary Cafe & Espresso Bar

Vancouver does quite well whipping up a basic good breakfast at several locations Downtown and in East County. However, Rosemary Cafe & Espresso goes just a bit beyond the basics at an amazingly affordable price. Nothing on the breakfast menu is over $8.95.

Our breakfast bunch included a small army of kids this week and thankfully, Rosemary Cafe is kid-friendly. It was no trouble to pull together a kids table and a separate table for the adults who enjoy grown-up conversation from time to time. Our server was pleasant though for awhile, she was a one-man band – hostess, cook and server. Fortunately, she was an efficient one-man-band and we didn’t have to wait too terribly long for our meals.

Grilled Breakfast Burrito

The menu wasn’t vast by any means, but it offered up fresh ideas for breakfast. All breakfasts come with FREE (yes, FREE) house coffee and a serving of their homemade applesauce.  I ordered the Grilled Breakfast Burrito and in spite of my hesitation to have spicy food for breakfast, this was a wise choice. It was delicious and fresh tasting – a grilled tortilla packed with three eggs, olives, onions, sausage, potatoes, cheese and a mild salsa – a hearty platter for only $7.95.

My fellow diners ordered the Everyday Breakfast (with all the usual breakfast suspects), french toast, Made-t0-Order Scrambles and a Breakfast Sandwich. There wasn’t a disappointed person in the bunch.

Made to Order Scramble

Spendy Scale: $

Coffee Rating:  (Cafe’ Vita - Portland)

Other Offerings

• Lunch
• Catering
• Take-away
• Beer and Wine

Contact Information

1001 Main Street
Vancouver, WA 98660-3150
(360) 737-7611

Hours

Weekdays 7:30am-4:30pm

Breakfast served until 10:30 am

Local Attractions

• Esther Short Park
• Vancouver Farmers Market
• Clark County Historical Museum

Bantam & Grouse

Goodness! It’s been awhile since I’ve been on here. BAD Stevie!

After two weeks on the Canadian road, I was simplifying my breakfast life. All I wanted for about two weeks was cereal and toast. I needed cholesterol recovery,  but now I’m back with two visits to report.

The Bantam & Grouse is a gem – a hidden surprise in another Vancouver gem, Shorty’s Garden and Home. It is so much like the tea shops I used to visit across the pond in the UK, that I was literally gushing with enthusiasm at the owner, Gail Burks. In their own words, they offer up “A European Twist to Tea and Coffee”. What a pleasure is was to enjoy a full tea-cosied pot of Yorkshire Tea. Coffee drinkers – do not despair. They make mocha’s and lattes featuring Caffé Darte brand tea.

Breakfast Pasty

B & G has a sweet little menu which should cheer the hearts of the local British population and those who simply wish they were British. I’ve tried the traditional meat pasty [pas-tee] and for breakfast their Breakfast Pasty of ham, cheese and potatoes. Baked just right, it has that lovely crumbly crust that makes a pasty, perfect.

Other offerings for breakfast include a breakfast sandwich and bagels and cream cheese for the truly unadventurous. I encourage you to take your time. Enjoy your “cuppa”. Take a stroll through the gardens and them GO BACK for lunch and/or a homemade scone. You’ll have just created the perfect day.

Spendy Scale: $

Other Offerings

• Lunch
• Take-away

Contact Information

Hours

Monday-Saturday 10 am-4pm
Sunday 10 am-4pm

Local Attractions

• David Douglas Park
• and not much else I’m afraid, but the Shorty’s gardens are a beautiful botanical adventure.

Summit Cafe

When the idea of a sit down restaurant/diner in the typical sense doesn’t work for you, Summit Cafe, makes a nice change. While typical breakfast meals are found on their giant bulletin board menu (they are paper free), you’ll be presented with some nice alternative breakfast choices.

Summit Cafe is first and foremost a coffee shop, offering a large variety of specialty coffees and baked goods. In fact, the baked goods look so good, it was difficult to settle for what’s on the menu when a muffin might have served me just as well. Frankly, muffins, while being quite tasty, do not serve me well and so I opted for a plate of protein.

My husband and I ordered the special of the day. Essentially, it was a traditional breakfast of eggs, hash browns and toast, but instead of the usual meat choices, it came with Tuscany Sausage. It was very good! And a nice change from the skimpy strips of bacon we’ve been seeing throughout our Canadian travels.

Special w/Tuscany Sausage

The rest of the menu seemed to have a strong South-of-Two-Borders (Mexican) flavor to it with at least four dishes served with salsa, sour cream and other typical Mexican ingredients. They also had a nice variety of bagel breakfast sandwiches.

Can’t really say anything against the place. The locals love it and when it’s a nice day, it’s pleasant to sit in the outdoor seating area. The only thing that throws a spanner in the works is the placement of the coffee bar which is situated before you get to the cashier. Folks who don’t “get” that you are meant to fill your cup prior to paying, find themselves swimming upstream in the long line of people waiting to order. Very strange…

Spendy Scale: $

Coffee Rating: 3 (Mountain Blend Coffee Roasters )

Tea Rating: 4 (Two Leaves & a Bud)

Other Offerings

• Lunch
• Outdoor seating
• Bakery items

Contact Information

6:30 am-6 pm

Local Attractions

• The Alpine Club of Canada
• Silver Tip Golf Resort

Well time got away from me and since I am on vacation after all, I’m going to combine my Jasper breakfast notes into one (hopefully coherent) blog entry.

We had two wonderful nights and days in the area with many eating choices. It was hard to choose where to go first. Our hotel, the Jasper Best Western Inn & Suites, had it’s own restaurant, the Inn Restaurant (clever, I know). We ate dinner there the first night and even though they offered us a slick deal as Best Western members for the morning buffet, we decided to hold off on that until the following day.

Papa George's Jasper, Alberta

Instead, we had our first breakfast was at Papa Georges  at 400 Connaught Drive. It’s part of the Astoria Hotel which is owned by the great grandson of George Arthur Andrew whose picture hangs in the middle of the restaurant. It’s a beautifully designed establishment and I really wanted to love it. Admittedly, it was my own fault for not reading the menu properly. I ordered Papa’s Skillet and failed to notice that my favorite ingredients would be smothered in sour cream and salsa – two ingredients I absolutely can not tolerate in the morning.

Papa's Scramble

Since it was close to the end of breakfast which finishes at 11:30 am, our server stated it was too late to redo my meal and since it was my error, I didn’t complain – I just scraped the offending sour cream (not a fan) off the top. I think most folks would say that it’s very good and I did do quite well working through the heaping portion of home-style potatoes, spinach, feta, tomatoes and cheddar cheese.

The rest of the family fared only marginally better. They all ordered pretty standard fare and could only report that the pancakes where the best thing going. I think the price of the food is what put us off completely. Definitely a $$$ place and for what you got, certainly not value for money. The bacon was a disgrace, being some of the thinnest, fattiest specimens I’ve seen in a long time.

After that experience, I decided to keep my eyes open for other breakfast ideas. While waiting for our boarding time on the Jasper Tramway, I noticed a real meal deal on a bulletin board. For $29, if you visit the Tramway between 9:00 am and 10:30 am, you get breakfast and you tramway ticket (plus taxes). We’d just paid $29 for an individual ticket and I was doing a mental head slap when I learned I could have had my breakfast for free along with a morning tramway ride. Albeit, it probably wasn’t going to be a gourmet breakfast as the menu stated pretty much the basics: scrambled eggs, bacon or sausage, hash browns and toast. But it would be a much cheaperdeal than doing both things separately in Jasper.

If you prefer more of a continental style breakfast…or should I say, the bagel and cream cheese with massive coffee type breakfast, I recommend the Bear’s Paw Bakery (two locations). We stopped by for a quick afternoon break and I have to say, the baked goods are phenomenal there. I should have forgone the distinctly average Inn Restaurant buffet and just trotted down the street for the sweet and the savory of the Bear’s Paw.

Hello Toast - Kamloops B.C.

Two days in a row, my Plan A restaurants have failed me. The restaurant I was supposed to go to today was closed – permanently closed and has been for two years. Guess I was going by some old data when I did the research…

Hello Toast was an extremely good Plan B. In the middle of downtown Kamloops,  Hello Toast is a bustling little place run by three busy ladies – Tina Lange, Amy Stiles and Karen Stiles. The walls are covered with photos of children – their children. These massive photo collages are all about family and they add a lot of cheer to the place.

They have a great menu with some interesting twists to the usual breakfast fare. They offer Green Eggs and Ham (pesto being the reason for green, thank goodness!), Aussie Breaky (two eggs, sliced tomatoes and multi-grain toast), a variety of scrambles and Benny’s (Eggs Benedicts).

World Famous Hot Cereal

I ordered their World Famous Hot Cereal. Now, I don’t know if it is truly world famous, but it was a hearty blend of baked brown rice, pot barley, flax seed, rolled oats, cinnamon and raisins. This came with sides of brown sugar, sunflower seeds and milk. It was tasty and if there were just a few more raisins, it would have been perfect – for me.

Tony ordered Pleasure Toast. Sounds sexy, doesn’t it? It’s actually sliced cranberry sourdough bread soaked in egg, (cooked, obviously – though the menu left that step out) and served with mulled cranberry sauce. It looked great and Tony claimed the sauce was different in a good way – tangy with a hint of cloves.

Pleasure Toast

My daughter, Jess, had Bonjour Toast (aka French Toast). This is the first time during this trip that she cleared her plate. That pretty much says it all to me. It was good!

The only thing that didn’t meet expectations was the two side orders of bacon. For $3, you get two ordinary, nothing remarkable slices of bacon. That made things a bit spendy for me, but I’ll rate it on the high end of one $. Don’t let that scare you, however. This is definitely a Plan A place and I encourage you to visit. You won’t be disappointed.

Spendy Scale: $

Coffee Rating: 4 (Was not able to get a definitive answer on the brand of the coffee, but it was good)

Other Offerings

• Breakfast served all day
• Lunch – apparently known for their soups.

Contact Information

Hours

Pending

Local Attractions

• Kamloops Art Gallery
• BC Wildlife Park
• Kamloops Heritage Railway
• Big Little Science Centre

Costello's Travel Caffe'

Joy! Rapture! Another wonderful breakfast place that I would recommend to friends and family - a place I can honestly say, “If you come to Portland, you simply must eat here.” We visited on recommendation from our newest Bunch member, Jessica, who had this to say as a way of introduction: “I love breakfast more than life itself.” Jessica, welcome to the Board!

Costello’s Travel Caffe’ may be situated on NE Broadway in Portland, but when you walk through the door, you feel transported to a European cafe – albeit, bigger than a European cafe, but then everything is bigger in a America, right? The travel-themed decor suits this travel-lover perfectly. I couldn’t help but wish I could escape to the places filmed around the world by the Costello’s and displayed on flat-screens around the room. It’s a match made in heaven – beautiful scenery and beautiful European inspired food.

The BEST Quiche

The best deal on the menu is the Backpacker’s Breakfast. For just $7.95 you get a hearty serving of quiche, a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, and a choice of freshly-baked morning pastry or bagel. The quiche of the day was zucchini, black olive and bacon. My only regret about this was that I ate it too fast. It was unstoppable goodness. I chose the muffin for my pastry and I have to say that I’ve never tasted a flavor combination so perfect: Mexican chocolate and zucchini.

Jessica ordered the crepes made with fresh strawberries, marscarpone cheese and berry coulee. Beautifully arranged on a large plate, this giant duo looked more like dessert than breakfast. Jessica was lucky to get a taste by the time the platter was handed around the table.

Beautiful Crepes

I can’t wait to go back to try Costello’s lunch and dinner menu. I just wish Vancouver restaurants would take a note from this family’s book: It’s GOOD to think outside the box. Perhaps Costello’s could be persuaded to open a second location…

Coffee Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (Caffe’ Umbria)

Spendy Scale: $

Other Offerings

• Lunch &  dinner
• Beer & wine
• Free Wifi (not available Sat. & Sun)
• Kid friendly
• Evening events: Foreign films, Conversations, Live music

Contact Information

Hours

Breakfast served until 12pm weekdays and until 1pm Sat – Sun

Mon: 7am – 8pm
Tue – Thur: 7am – 9pm
Fri: 7am – 10pm
Sat – Sun: 8am – 4pm

Local Attractions

• US Grant Park
• Grant Pool
• Lloyd Center Mall

A One-of-a-Kind Cozy

This is NOT an eatery. I stumbled upon this searching for another cafe in Portland and I think these crocheted coffee cup cozies (or hot cup sleeves)  from the Coffee Cozy Cafe are neat-o. Even better, they are eco-friendly.

This is a great gift idea for the coffee/tea/chocolate lover. I’d pair this with a gift card to the recipients favorite beverage spot.

Every once in a while, I stumble upon a coffee shop that I really like. And when I really like something, I like to share. Today, I enjoyed a pleasant visit with friends at Mugs Coffee Co. in Vancouver, WA.

Now, I can’t report on the coffees as I’m not a coffee drinker, but the concoctions my friends tried looked delicious - almost as delicious as the Papa Haydn desserts displayed at the counter. I couldn’t resist the Low-fat Chocolate Chip Cake. I paired that with a cup of Mint Medley tea from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Merchants in Portland, OR.

The owner, Derrick and the manager, Joe are rockin’ the coffee world with their choice of top quality products and excellent service. They also offer FREE WiFi, plenty of tables and two comfy sofas. And best of all? You get to enjoy your beverage in a real…wait for it…MUG!

Contact Information

Hours

Mon-Thu:  6:30-8
Fri:  6:30-10
Sat:  8-10
Sun:  9-7