Breakfast

Where to start your day in the South Sound

By Jake and Jason de Paul on January 10, 2008

AFFAIRS CAFE & BAKERY

Affairs Café & Bakery is a comfy place to catch up with a friend over gourmet breakfast and strawberry mimosa.  Also, their chocolates are as close to a vice as you can get without actually sinning.  2811 Bridgeport Way W., University Place, 253.565.8604.

BABBLIN’ BABS BISTRO

Chef William Mueller incorporates intelligent portion control with nontraditional ingredients — apple pecan rye bread, French ham, white cedar cheese and cilantro. He prepares nothing by chance.  Ingredients are positioned perfectly.  His breakfast sandwiches could hang in a museum. The Babs Goes Northwest — salmon, egg, thin slices of English cucumber, red onions, tomatoes and a smear of cream cheese — raises the question: Did Mueller place each herb on with tweezers?  It’s fantastic.  Our favorite is The Bess of sandwich with hickory smoked bacon, spinach, egg, wafer-thin tomato slices on French bread. And the organic Bistro Blend (Indonesian and Ethiopian) lavender latte makes us weep with pleasure. 2724 N. Proctor St., Tacoma, 253.761.9099.

CICADA RESTAURANT & LOUNGE

Owners Billy Roberson and Lisa Smith have a treasure here. Their Northwest/Cajun fusion restaurant has an ambitious, inventive menu that hits its mark more often than not. Cicada’s breakfast menu reads like a five-star restaurant, and it delivers. The butternut squash pancake was moist, massive and decorated with curried apple sauce, honey and pumpkin seeds. The Big Easy tastes as good as it looks. Inventive green eggs and ham, a jalapeno scramble with corn tortillas and fixings, was extraordinary. The thick French toast with candied hazelnuts and raisin chutney belongs on a dessert menu. Hangtown Fry, biscuits and gravy and a breakfast sandwich look good enough to kill a hangover. 700 Fourth Ave E., Olympia, 360.753.5700.

ELMER’S PANCAKE AND STEAKHOUSE

Step back in time with a true old-fashioned diner style restaurant with pancakes, blue-plate-like entrees, sandwiches, soups, chicken-fried-steak, tasty pies and desserts. Breakfast, lunch or dinner. 7427 South Hosmer, Tacoma, (253) 473-0855.

JAVA FUSION COFFEE HOUSE AND DELI

This coffee house imparts a warm and welcoming vibe not only projected by charming employees, but through the comfortably appointed main room as well. Enjoy breakfast sandwiches, oatmeal, bagels, omelets on biscuit or croissant, yogurt, quiches, and even a pancake-sausage or bacon combo served all day for less than $5. 6820 Sixth Ave., Tacoma. 253.565.1017.

PUGET SOUND PIZZA

This joint is like everyone’s memory of their favorite college pizza hangout. It’s the place to find a quick and large breakfast at a reasonable price, plus pizza that rocks your world.  317 South Seventh, downtown Tacoma, delivery and take-out at 253.383.4777.

SOUTHERN KITCHEN

Breakfast at noon on Saturday is so right, and Southern Kitchen really does it right.  Have a big slab of grilled hot ham or juicy sausage links with a plate of diced home fries in a place where greasy is not a dirty word but a tasty one. Fluffy biscuits drowning in lightly peppered creamy sausage gravy, pure white grits just waiting to be buttered and salted up, slightly sweet corncakes, cheesy eggs scrambled quick — mmm, mmm, mmm, don’t stop us now. 1716 Sixth Ave., Tacoma, 253.627.4282.

VILLAGE INN

A homey, relaxed joint resembling other traditional American cuisine chain restaurants. For breakfast, try fluffy biscuits with creamy peppered country gravy, omelets packed with mouthwatering ingredients, or seven, enormous breakfast accompanied by two rich buttermilk pancakes. Lunch and dinner are also served. 31711 Pacific Highway S., Federal Way, 253.941. 9860.

WOW’S ETC.

Heaping standard breakfasts and tasty specials will settle anyone’s tummy, and the mimosas make you giggle.  It’s where Tacoma’s rockers cope with the night before. Music rocks, too. 2704 N. 21st St., Tacoma, 253.759.3882.