Best of Tucson 1996: Best Breakfast

Best Breakfast

Frank's Restaurant
3843 E. Pima St.

READERS' PICK: Somehow, eating at Frank's gives us the feeling of being transported to the middle ages. Perhaps the grease fires that occasionally blaze across the grill hearken back to the open-hearth cookery of troubadour-era France. Maybe the "hail, and well met, good fellow!" attitude of the waitstaff gives us a Chauceresque feeling. Perhaps it's the simplicity of the food: perfectly cooked egg, bacon and toast, all staples of the 12th century Rhineland peasant's diet. Or maybe it's the low prices, hearkening back to the period of highest real wages amongst the working class which occured after the Black Death of the 1340s. Whatever the reason, hie thee over to Frank's, and order ye the delicious pancakes, forsooth.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: Blue Willow Restaurant, Bakery & Poster Gallery, 2616 N. Campbell Ave., is famous for its wide range of breakfast options. An enormous selection of omelets and pancakes, along with seasonal fruits, granola and the popular Blue Willow Vegetarian Burrito, are sure to please vegetarians as well as the carnivores who tend them. And if you get bitten by the shopping bug while sitting on the outdoor patio, there's an innovative card and gift shop conveniently located on the premises.

STAFF PICK: Our favorite dish at The Garland, 119 E. Speedway, isn't a luscious fruit-covered waffle or the banana pancakes with real maple syrup. It's not the spicy Garland Rancheros or the English Channel, a spinach-and-mornay-sauce Eggs Benedict spin-off. It's not any of the many exceptional omelets, or the granola with fruit, or the generous slices of just-baked whole wheat toast. It's not even the utterly transcendent hibiscus cooler. No, our highest marks go to the single most important--yet humble--part of any breakfast: home fries. Tender but never greasy, blessed with onion and paprika, virtually orgasmic, The Garland's spuds are indisputably the finest in town. And the fact that they come on the side of that screamin' $3.75 Egghead platter makes Sunday morning worth getting up for.