Breakfast may have started the whole trend for small-plate dining. Once upon a time, as a waitress working the early shift in a downtown hotel coffee shop, I learned to line my arm with the myriad toast plates, fried-egg dishes, and pancake platters that defined the morning meal at most restaurants. (Please note: This was before the advent of genderless “servers,” so “waitress” accurately describes the job. My uniform—a thigh-grazing, puff-sleeved get-up with a swirly, girly skirt vaguely evoking a Tyrolean milkmaid—should explain everything.) When not delivering little bowls of canned peach compote in my cute little dress, I filled little cups on little saucers with endless refills of drip coffee from a glass carafe with the word “Boyds” stamped on the side.

The Portland-based Boyd Coffee Company, a family operation that dates its origins to the year 1900, had forged a ubiquitous presence in restaurants throughout the West that lasted well into the 1970s. But then came Starbucks.

When we phoned each and every one of the top breakfast spots featured this month to learn the brand and blend of coffee they serve, we had no idea whether Boyds had survived the gourmet coffee revolution. Though we did unearth one old-school diner that still serves the drip stalwart, our city of connoisseurs continues its quest for a better and ever more exquisite coffee-drinking experience. We found no fewer than 15 different roasters, most of them local, now supplying Seattle’s discerning bean geeks in restaurants around town. The plethora of hometown artisan roasters with not-quite-household names such as True North, Lighthouse, Zoka, or Caffè Fiorè, came as an eye-opener. And that’s not counting all the neighborhood coffeehouses that keep us caffeinated cup by cup.

No less eye-opening is Seattle Met restaurant critic Kathryn Robinson’s interview with the entrepreneurs behind the 5-Spot, Coastal Kitchen, and other Chow Foods properties. Before they got hold of breakfast and turned it into a legitimate meal, restaurant breakfasts were predictably uniform and their main competitors were hotels, just like the one I worked in.

Thank goodness those dark days are behind us. It’s morning in Seattle.

Katherine Koberg

Editor-in-Chief
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