Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Brunch Review - Doyle Street Cafe

A few weekends ago Andy and I had brunch at Doyle Street Cafe in Emeryville. We discovered Emeryville fairly recently and have had fun exploring what it has to offer. From the outside, the neighborhood appears to be filled with chain stores and restaurants. Once you take the side streets though, you quickly realize there are fun unique little spots that only the locals know about. Doyle Street Cafe seems to be one of these spots.


When we arrived on Saturday morning there was already a line out the door. Families and groups of young people were mingling outside the entrance waiting for their tables to be ready.  We groaned at the idea of waiting, but also realized that the food must be worth it. When we put our names in to be seated the host sat us immediately. It was our lucky day! Most parties waiting had over 4 people, so Andy and I being only two people, were able to get a table right away.


Hot delicious coffee was delivered immediately. We contemplated between ordering off the brunch menu or the specials board. Despite the mouthwatering items on the specials board we decided on the menu. Andy ordered eggs Benedict with salmon and I opted for the goat cheese and spinach omelet.


While we waited for the food our coffees were repeatedly filled, and a low hum of voices could be heard. The ambiance was simple, almost homey. The host was very friendly with people who came in, and when he wasn't busy he helped everyone else in the restaurant. He had his hands in everything, which made me think he might possibly have been the owner. Either way, he was a friendly presence and made sure that our waters and coffees never went dry.


Our meals came after a short wait and we dug in. It was delicious, though I must admit Andy ordered better than I had. Lucky for me, he was willing to share. Our food was scarfed down with the intensity one has when something tastes so good you think it may vanish. Unfortunately, our food did vanish after a short while. We came up for a breath and were greeted with yet more coffee.


Overall, the experience we had at Doyle Street Cafe was a pleasant one. Later in the day though, both Andy and I had horrible stomach cramps. We are still not sure if it was the food from our brunch, or something else. At this point, I will just remember our Doyle Street Cafe as a delicious experience and leave it at that.


If you feel like checking it out for yourself, here is the website: http://doylestreetcafe.com/, and if you haven't figured it out already, it is located on none other than Doyle Street.


3 comments:

  1. Ha! I like the stomach cramp disclaimer. We'll spare the cafe's good name and blame the stomach cramps to the copious amts of coffee.
    My husband and I have eaten in sketchy places all over the world but have only ever had food poisoning from proper restaurants. In South Africa we ate from the side of the roads but only got sick from the fancy hotel dinner his parents treated us to.
    I've been checking out your blog for a few weeks (since seeing a link on your Craigslist post) and really enjoy it. I'm about to grab some pork belly for curing my own bacon for brunch next wk and am hoping I dont accidentally poison us. This post was right up my alley this morning.. thought I'd finally comment!

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    1. Hi Toni, thanks for the comment! I take it you are in the Bay Area if you read my craigslist post. :) Do you have any good brunch place recommendations?

      I agree with the travel comment. We love street food, but it is usually the restaurant food where we've gone wrong. Weird how that works out...

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    2. Hey Ellie,
      unfortunately, no good brunch recs yet - we just moved here about 2 months ago (to the outer richmond area). There is a place called Beach Chalet a few blocks from us (adjacent to Golden Gate park and across from the ocean) that looks like it has a nice brunch - and you can have your drinks brought out to this really cool lawn area. Besides the Beach Chalet - I've been wanting to try a dim sum brunch. I've only been to dim sum once with a Chinese friend when we lived in NYC and am a bit intimidated b/c I have no idea what to order :(

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