11th Street Cafe

It's a new morning, and what better way to start than with breakfast?

It was raining hard, so instead of running at the park we ventured to the Heights for breakfast at 11th St Cafe, a little diner on a corner that I've driven by a million times but never stopped. The decor is a little cheesy-retro: not as authentic as the Yale St. Diner but not as over the top as 59 Diner.

Although we didn't partake, you get a free bottle of champagne when you order a carafe of orange juice. That in itself is reason to return. The diner fare was also good enough, but nothing to rave about. I had a Belgian waffle with a side of biscuit, my dining companions ordered breakfast staples: eggs, hashbrowns, grits, toast.

The waffle was probably the best thing we ordered, the biscuit was good enough, all the rest was average. The ambience is great and the service was friendly - when David asked for blackberry jam, the waiter brought over a special jar they keep in the restaurant for some regulars that come in every morning.

Yale Street Grill

Yale Street Grill: The Heights =  Avalon Diner: River Oaks

David and I loved this breakfast place, not so much for the breakfast (although it is very solid diner food) but mostly for the clientele.  We spent a good chunk of time lamenting that neither of us had brought our cameras.  

There are tiles on the walls, I like that.  There was also a youngish old lady wearing a fur, and it wasn't even cold out!  David had a crush on one of the waitresses - he caught her name, but I forgot it already - she had a very warm smile.

There is goofy candy at the checkout, unfortunately, I gave up candy for lent and did not partake.  

Basically, what we learned is there is absolutely no reason to ever go to 59 Diner for breakfast.  Best biscuits in town are still at Avalon.

Brazil

Sunday mornings are one of my favorite times of the week, and I generally like to celebrate them by taking myself out to brunch.  It can be a chore to decide where to go, especially when there is a group involved.  This Sunday, we ventured over to Brazil, mostly because it was on the way to somewhere else.  

The brunch menu at Brazil is pretty weird and crunchy, like the restaurant itself.  There were items like flaxseed waffles, which I am deeply distrustful of.  I don't like it when places take a healthy word (flaxseed) and pair it with an unhealthy word (waffles) and then try to trick you into feeling good about making dubious choices.  I mean, really, if you drizzled omega 3 fatty acids on waffles, does that really make them healthy? I don't know.  So I went with a basic breakfast plate, and frankly, it was just ok.  The eggs came in their own oval-shaped bowl, scrambled with feta and a pretty garnish.  The bacon was greasy, but I don't really like bacon by itself anyways so I gave it to David.  The side of tomatoes came out lightly breaded and pan-fried, I would say a bust.  Probably should have picked potatoes.  

The really annoying thing about Brazil is that it's counterservice, and the coffee is BEHIND the counter.  So you have to go fight the line when you want a refill.  And the cups aren't that big to start.  That's really why I won't go back here very often.  Also, because I have really great cholesterol numbers as it is, so flaxseed can go fuck itself.

Whataburger

This is a special New Year's Austin edition of Cheeseboomboom.  Happy 2009!

I have often asked my friends and acquaintances to compare Whataburger and In-N-Out Burger, and I have gotten a decidedly mixed response.  Personally, I think Whataburger trumps In-N-Out for a number of reasons, and anyone who has ever gone to Whataburger with a drunk girl from Corpus Christi (the home of Whataburger by the Bay) will have to agree with me.

We (three hot drunk-ass girls) rolled (on a pedicab) into this restaurant at 2 am on New Year's Day.  We ordered:

• Honey Butter Chicken Biscuit
  
• Breakfast Biscuit (fried egg and cheese biscuit sandwich)
  
• Plain biscuit
  
• Hashbrowns (4 sticks to the order)
  

All that cost deliciousness cost $5.25.  Choke on that cost of living, California.

Lankford's Grocery

This place is a dive, to say the least.  The day I went it had rained in the morning, and it appeared as though it was still raining inside at lunch time.  Nevertheless, a great time.

First of all, while waiting for a table, I saw tater tots being consumed all over the place.  Tater tots!  You just don't see that on too many menus these days, and for no good reason.  Tater tots are definitely in the top five potato preparation methods, yet rarely do you hear drunk girls screaming about how much they want tater tots.  I mean, I'm no carbaholic, but I've had a potato or two in my life, and thick flaky tater tots are about as good as it gets in spuds.  

Back to Lankford's: this place is in the Midtown area, but it is nothing like Midtown.  I mean, it is Midtown in the sense that it is across the street from three-story townhouses, but it's more like whatever Ward Midtown used to be -- or, even older, perhaps even pre-Ward.  So sure, it's old and the roof leaks, but there's a reason this place is still in business: somebody there knows how to use a deep fryer.

The special of the day was chicken-fried steak, which I had to forgo because I had Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and too much fried meat is what gets people on The Biggest Loser.  So I had a chicken sandwich (although the burgers looked amazing) and then tasted the assortment of fried sides: tater tots, fried jalapenos (called hot sticks or something) and onion rings.  Damn girl.  This is what I'm talking about.

I really want to go back for breakfast.  It's nice to find a place in Houston that's not in a strip mall and feels more than fifteen minutes old.

Empire Cafe II

I have to hold up my end of the blog I spose. I had never eaten at Empire Cafe except for 1/2 price cakes and it
is the only place where you can really get Boston Creme Pie, my uncles favorite cake. Why it is called pie, I will never know. Empire has the best coffee. 1) it is unlimited 2)it comes with a cookie 3)the mugs are the perfect size to keep the coffee the correct drinkable temperature. I always come for coffee and love sitting on the porch out front to watch cars go by on Westhiemer. It is not as special as Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans but what do we really have here that is close to comparable?

For the Hurricane, I got to venture out and eat at Rucci's again. And finally, I have paid for breakfast at Empire. The quantity is large and the quality is great. It is a full, complete meal. But then again, I did not have a chance to make a moronic mistake of eating french toast, as I always do for fear of not eating a substantial meal during hurricane power outages.

The first day, I ate Hunter's Eggs. Sunny side up eggs on top of bread, with sauteed mushrooms and tomatoes. I think the bread under the eggs made the meal complete. So the next day I ordered Foccacia Eggs, which had two scrambled eggs on top of foccacia bread. The side was a cheddar hash brown, just crispy enough. Both of these meals came with fruit. Yum!

Eat a meal here! I recommend eggs.

Empire Cafe

Special Edition: I have no power for 5 days 

and eat at Empire for every meal 

since restaurants are still limited by the 

mother-of-a that left a trail of No-Power 

all over the Can-Do Capital of the World

Empire Cafe has great breakfast, and I should know since I ate it today and twice yesterday.  I was just so happy to have hot hot coffee that I couldn't leave.  Someone clever might say "Ike 'ant get enough."  

There are a million reasons to go here: foccacia eggs, gingerbread waffles, generous fruit plates, half-price cake on Wednesdays, but the train whistle that keeps blowing in my ear is the free cookies you get with your cup of joe.  There was a sign today that listed everything they didn't have (basil, liquor, bacon, pinot grigio, portabellas, etc) but the only thing on that list that was accompanied by a frowny face was cookies.  So yeah, I was sad that there were no cookies, but I ordered my coffee with a shot of espresso and let all my worries slip away.

Parts of this city are scary dark. I am grateful for the coffee each morning brings.

Bibas (One's A Meal) (West Gray)

Martin and I went running at Memorial, and then we treated ourselves to some yummy breakfast food at Bibas.  We tried to go to the one on Memorial, but it wasn't open.  Which makes me think it's closed for good, which would be a shame, but really, we all knew there was only one location ever worth going to anyways.

Waffle: A great blend of fluffy and crunchy, it was loaded up with buttery goodness.  They did not bring me any maple syrup (aka corn syrup) which didn't bother me in the least.  Let me just take a moment to say that the ubiquity of fake maple syrup is on my top 10 list of What Is Wrong with America.

Eggs: fine.

Martin got a bunch of shit; he said the grits were good.  I don't eat grits because I don't know what they are. Corn? Please, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

Avalon on Westheimer

This place is always a trip down memory lane.
I always thought it I were living in the country on a manor as
a privileged child in the 1940's, the breakfast experience would
be similar except in the breakfast nook of my wealthy parents home.
I could go riding and then eat grits. I love grits and I love the
waitresses at this restaurant. They are always so welcoming.




However, do not order Tex Mex breakfast here. Eat
the bacon and grits and classic breakfast. But if I had my
choice, I would eat pancakes at Buffalo Grill or the French Toast
and wings at Breakfast Klub.

Avalon Diner

An oldie but a goodie.  

I won't get in to the cultural (historical?) aspects of that place that make me slightly uncomfortable, but let me share this gem with you. I had just arrived back from Costa Rica, and I was excited to tell my parents how I had caught Barack's acceptance speech on satellite during a thunderstorm at a random bar in Santa Teresa.  Because satellite doesn't work in the rain, a lot of the stations weren't coming in so I ended up watching Barack's speech on BET.  I'm telling my dad this as we are being served our coffee, I say "BET! Isn't that crazy?" and he goes "what?" and I say "BET" and he says "what?" and I say "BET" and by then we all had our coffee and the waitress just walked away smiling.  Then he said "I thought you were saying BEC."

I had the vegetarian omelette with fruit and a biscuit.  Avalon has the best biscuits in town. (Breakfast Klub? Maybe...)  Fruit is always a little lame, but this bowl was ok.  It paled in comparison to what I was eating in CR.

My mom had huevos rancheros which she did NOT like.  Something about the cheese being bad.

David had migas, poorly reviewed.  Also a cheese issue.

My dad proudly discovered two menu items that were virtually indistinguishable.  He ended up with the Western Scrambler. 

Luigi got carbs.