Philadelphia, which has constantly been a top-notch breakfast city, seems to be experiencing an inspiring new wave of daybreak kitchens. About 20 years in the past, we got our first infusion of what I referred to as the “funky brunch crew,” such locations as Sam’s Morning Glory Diner and Sabrina’s that supplied homespun updates to diner fare. We then noticed extra competition in that fashion, including Honey’s Sit-‘n-Eat and Green Eggs Café. Day by way of Day, the Restaurant Renaissance lunch tradition was given into the brunch enterprise.
But there’s a bright new generation of breakfast alternatives that have popped up in the last couple of years. Middle Child (248 S. 11th St.), the up-to-date luncheonette counter close to Jefferson Hospital that I reviewed last year, makes one of the fluffiest egg sandwiches on the town, paired with residence-cured corned red meat for the Hershel Walker, a satisfying sandwich ode to the tremendous delis.
Many humans have been in mourning following the final of Carman’s Country Kitchen in South Philly. But that nook luncheonette in South Philly has determined a charming successor with willpower to hand-made food at Comfort & Floyd (1301 S. 11th St.), wherein I wolfed a kielbasa omelet laced with residence-cured sauerkraut, and the sensitive buttermilk pancakes were in particular superb.
The “Dinosaur Egg,” a deep-fried avocado wrapped in bacon and full of a poached egg, gets all the press at Fishtown’s stylishly black-and-white Over Easy Breakfast Club (2302 E. Norris St) But I changed into wowed by using a breakfast burrito special and the phenomenally irresistible monkey bread, whose pull-apart loaf comes with a spoon to bathe it in a puddle of hot, salted caramel.
There’s been a breakfast bump in the suburbs, too, with a brand new branch of 13th Street’s Cafe Lift in Narberth (724 1st Viscount Montgomery of Alamein Ave.). At Tank & Libby’s (1011 Pontiac Rd., Drexel Hill), a cheerful strip mall area, the expansive menu constructed on hand-crafted ingredients hits the spot with breakfast tacos; “The Grateful Dead” improve to creamed chipped red meat (I become so grateful); and what is probably the fluffiest, excessive-upward push pancakes I’ve visible in awhile.
Meanwhile, back inside Philly, some of the brand new breakfast contenders have long gone past updated diner comforts to a few more fashionable pursuits. Yes, the hefty breakfast sandwich with resident Italian sausage at Fiore (757 S. Front St.) is any other worth an entry into the fancy breakfast sandwich sweepstakes. (Res Ipsa, Hungry Pigeon, and Walnut Street Café play that field, too.)
But it’s the flaky pistachio cornetto (basically an Italian croissant) and different laminated pastry wonders from co-owner and baker Justine MacNeil that I couldn’t prevent considering in Fiore’s current three-bell overview. Her sparkling-baked sourdough toast, crowned with whipped ricotta, roasted rhubarb, mint, and olive oil, was also memorable.
Meanwhile, Vernick Coffee Bar within the new Comcast Technology Center (1800 Arch St.) has redefined the luxurious breakfast hideaway, its blond wood-clad mezzanine area soaring like a modern treehouse over the lobby’s trees. All of the baked goods I sampled for the duration of my three-bell assessment of Vernick Coffee Bar in January have been top-notch and creative, from the matcha green tea-white chocolate croissant to the kouign-Amann oozing strawberry-ardor fruit caramel, to any other splendid breakfast sandwich with a silky steamed egg inside the center.
But chef Greg Vernick’s oatmeal soufflé turned into the revelation. It comes quivering and hot, levitating a solid inch above its ramekin with nutty beads of grain suspended in a citrusy candy cloud. Add a dollop of maple-sweetened whipped cream, and you could agree: Breakfast in Philly nowadays is on the rise.
