Morning meal

Troy Russell finishes a meal at Diamond Jim's, one of the restaurants around town known for their tasty and filling breakfasts. PHILIP A. DWYER HERALD PHOTO

Find filling, tasty and affordable breakfasts

Stacee Sledge

May 23, 2002 — It's said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If that's your credo and you have plans to celebrate Ski to Sea with a full day of spectatorship, you'll need a place to fuel up.

Here's a round up of great chow to start your day.

Old Town Café

My friend Rich has been a regular at the Old Town Café for nine years. In all that time, he's ordered only two different breakfast items: French toast and the two-egg green pepper and onion omelet. He loves both so much, he's not ventured to try anything else. And he emphatically says that he could eat this exact meal every day of the week, it's that good.

On the morning of our breakfast date, he went with his tried-and-true omelet, served with two soft corn tortillas and a generous helping of herbed potatoes. Rich wrapped a bit of everything on his plate into one of the tortillas, added a dash of ketchup, salt and pepper, and proclaimed himself a happy man.

Breakfast Roundup

Old Town Café 316 W. Holly St. Phone: 671-4431 Serving: Quality breakfast and lunch dishes made from scratch with natural, local and organic products. Menu items sampled: Green pepper and onion omelet $5.25 No. 9 $5.25 Organic coffee $1.25   Arlis's Restaurant 1525 Cornwall Ave. Phone: 647-1788 Serving: Tasty and traditional breakfast and lunch fare. Menu items sampled: Eggs and bacon $6.35 Boyds coffee $1.25   Diamond Jim's 1906 N. State St. Phone: 734-8687 Serving: Enormous portions of appetizing eats for breakfast and lunch. Menu items sampled: Breakfast sandwich $5.75 Short stack $2 Tony's Alder Creek coffee $1.15

You can concoct your own omelet by selecting from a long list of ingredients, including ham, bacon, turkey sausage, spinach, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, green peppers, sour cream, Monterey Jack, cheddar ... the list goes on. You can creatively construct any combination of extraordinary eggs. The meals comes with home fries or beans and toast or corn tortillas.

I ordered the No. 9 breakfast, including two fluffy poached eggs on a soft whole wheat English muffin and crowned with a bounty of tomatoes and flavorful cheese sauce.

The freshness and full flavor of the dish was outstanding, an appealing break from traditional eggs benedict.

Old Town is a Bellingham staple, and rightly so. The sociable servers, attention to every healthy detail and relaxing setting make for a marvelous morning ritual.

Arlis's Restaurant

If you're looking for the down-home experience, you can't go wrong with Arlis's Restaurant. Unassuming and straightforward, the food and friendly service — not to mention the daily trivia question that can net you a free beverage — make this a welcome breakfast stop.

I ordered the traditional eggs and bacon dish, which came with pan-fries and a choice of toast, pancakes, biscuits, English muffin or homemade muffin.

My two eggs were served medium, exactly to specification, and were accompanied with a mound of pan-fries that were a lovely mix of soft and crispy, with a pleasant buttery flavor.

Four enormous slices of salty bacon also shared the plate, making this meal large enough to satisfy me well through the lunch hour and beyond.

I went with the pancakes and was delighted with the choice. Light and fluffy, with just a slight crispiness around the edges, the buttermilk pancakes were served with a sizeable dollop of whipped butter and a small carafe of sweet maple syrup.

Arlis's offers an array of other breakfast (and lunch) treats. From eggs benedict and chicken fried steak to waffles and fresh fruit, this diner with a small-town vibe will serve something you crave.

Diamond Jim's

Portion size was hefty at the above restaurants, but Diamond Jim's surpasses them both.

If you've driven past this triangle-shaped building on State Street, you probably couldn't help but take note. With its bright mural and pink stucco exterior walls, the quaint place is hard to miss.

Inside is small but cozy; often crowded, but always comfortable.

I ordered Diamond Jim's breakfast sandwich of one egg, two slices of bacon and a light layer of cheddar cheese on my choice of toast. Served with American fried potatoes made with locally grown Knutzen Farm's red potatoes, the breakfast was quick, hot and memorable.

The potatoes consisted of small, uniform squares of soft, delicious spuds, grilled golden with garlic, margarine and onion.

The breakfast sandwich satisfied in its simple goodness.

The gentleman sitting next to me at the counter ordered a small stack of pancakes and couldn't stop chuckling when they were set in front of him. There was nothing small about this gargantuan stack of pancakes that flopped over the edge of the large plate. "It's enough to feed an army," he said with a laugh, unable to finish the last few fluffy bites.

Bellingham offers a plethora of beckoning breakfasts.

These three belong high atop a long list of welcoming places that will be happy to prepare you for a weekend of Ski to Sea festivities.

The Fine Print: I dine on my own dime. The opinions herein are mine alone, not the Bellingham Herald's. Agree? Disagree? Please drop me a line at StaceeSledge@hotmail.com.