Daybreak Cafe

Do you remember what your principal told you before the TAKS (TASS) test? "Stay at home if you're stupid." Not really. They told you to eat a balanced breakfast beforehand so you wouldn't die during the test and count as a failure.

So where can you get a balanced breakfast? Nowhere good. But you can get a delicious and cheap breakfast at Daybreak Cafe. They even balance the cheese and grease components to make sure you're getting equal portions of both. But most important about Daybreak revolves around the decoration. After the review I'll talk about the ambiance created by the decor.

Daybreak is on White Settlement, near Angelo]s and has a combination of traditional breakfast fare and mexican breakfast foods. As your liaison for food, I attempted to eat both kinds of food on one morning. You're welcome.

The breakfast plate which includes eggs (fried hard for me), bacon and hash browns was good and was very affordable. I can't remember the price now because of my weekly stroke but I remember it was cheap (because I paid). I also had a chorizo, egg and cheese breakfast burrito. I'm not actually a chorizo fan because I'm not sure what its made of. I mean, if it was pork, why wouldn't it be called puercizo, or if it was beef, couldn't they call it carnizo? No. Because its made of chorros (spanish for food reviewers).

The eggs were fried hard with no runny yolk, the bacon was chewy (which is how I like it) and the hash browns had a little crisp on the top and were warm. All in all it worked. The burrito, despite my chorizo avoidance, was delicious. It was very large for the size and definitely worth the cost. I would recommend all of these options but not at once. I only got about half way through my food reviewer burrito and half way through my breakfast plate.

Now to the decor. The restaurant looks like a place that started as one size and then expanded. It's decorated with lots of stuffed animals (taxidermy style, not pile on your kids' bed style). This isn't necessarily unique here in the Fort. Something is unique, however. Atop a coke machine in the back corner sits something I've never seen mounted before. A deer, a female deer. But more than that. A fawn. So either somebody killed a fawn with its spots...and mounted it. Or this was found and donated like you see at museums. For my imagination, I'm going to imagine a grizzlied hunter tracking down a fawn. This may bother some people but I found that it added to the ambiance. Seeing deer on the wall in the morning gets the hunter going in me and makes me prepared for the day. Those that don't have the same experience are obviously the spotted fawns sititng atop coke machines.

If you've been and have recommendations, please let me know.

Daybreak is located at 2720 White Settlement Road.

Love Shack

Did you hear that Chef Tim Love, of Iron Chef and Top Chef Masters fame, has opened a new love shack? (Note to self, make sure to capitalize the name of the restaurant)

In honor of this blog, Chef Love opened a restaurant with a giant wall on the outside, filled with holes. Thank you Chef Love. Can I use a picture of your wall as my new blog photo? I will take your silence as an affirmative answer. I will take your refusal as a sign that you are being coy.

For those of you who have been living in a Chili's, Chef Love opened the original Love Shack in the stockyards, to great acclaim, and provided our lovely tourists with freshly made, high quality burgers, fries, onion rings. hot dogs and milkshakes at an affordable price, right next to the White Elephant saloon. I have not been to this location but only because parking in the stockyards confuses intelligent people and...well, you've read this stuff.... But I have been to the new location on Matisse.

Where and what is Matisse you ask? It's an artist and a street just south of 7th Street in the SO7 development. That's the first development you'll come to on the south side of 7th, just west of the river on the west side of downtown. The restaurant is behind what will hopefully be my new blog photo and consists mostly of outdoor seating.

I have been a big advocate of outdoor seating at restaurants here in the Fort. Chef Love obviously heard my pleas. The inside seating is open to the outdoors and the outdoors is outdoors. But don't fret, there are umbrellas to keep you in the shade and we're entering fall so it should be very comfortable. The outdoor patio includes a stage, the bar-safe version of horseshoes (bean bag toss) and lots of tables. There is also half of a bar. The other half is inside.

On the inside you can order your food, find a few tables, and possibly meet Chef Love. Which is exactly what I did. I ordered my food. And met the Chef himself. For those of you who watched Top Chef Masters and Iron Chef, I have a major announcement: Tim Love does not always wear a cowboy hat and take shots of Tuaca. At least he wasn't doing these things when I met him. He was, however, confused as to why he had a male groupie.

I have been to the Shack of Love a couple times for milkshakes and can report that they are good. But don't go on vanilla day because its a waste of time. The flavored ice creams, however, are delicious (vanilla is not a flavor - its a level of bland). Each day they have a new homemade flavor so call before you go.

I have also been for lunch. When I went, I had the Love Burger with cheese and fries. I also tried my lunch-mate's onion rings. First of all, I have to tell you my view on burgers. I'm not a big fan of the notion that there is a "best burger". I think different burgers should be judged on their own characteristics and sometimes, burgers cannot be compared with other burgers. The Love Burger, for example, is one of those burgers because of the uncomfortably named, Love Sauce.

If you like a burger that is slightly crispy at the edges but juicy in the middle, with a unique sauce, you'll like this burger. If you don't, you wont. The burgers are all cooked the same way and everybody I was with was satisfied with the preparedness. Everybody was also pleased with the Love Sauce. I will admit that I liked it though I'm normally a mustard and ketchup type of person. So, the burger was a success.

I also ordered the fries with my combo. The fries are completely different from what you would expect. For some reason I thought the original shack had hand cut crinkly fries. The SO7 location has thin fries. But not like you'd think. They aren't potato strings. They are as wide as a traditional fry, but flat. Paradigm shift. I now understand that fries can be enjoyed in 2D. The big plus side to these fries is that the entire bite is crispy. Good stuff. Thanks to a generous lunch-mate, I also got to try the onion rings. They are the super stringy, pile 'o fried onion stuff. They were delicious, but if you like the traditional onion ring, you'll be disappointed. Luckily I'm not as close minded as you so I enjoyed them.

For eight bucks, I got a Love Burger, fries and a lemonade. That's not a bad deal considering that I also got to meet a celebrity and stole twenty dollars in ketchup and sweet 'n low (hahaha, just sort of kidding).

The Love Shack is open late and has great prices for really nicely done food. The location and atmosphere are also great for casual gatherings. If you go at lunch, be prepared for a line. Also be prepared to convince your coworkers that they have to stay.

If you've been, let everybody know what you thought. Please also voice your support to Chef Love regarding my use of a photo of his wall for the main photo on this blog.

I think the SO7 location is at 817 Matisse. The stockyard location is at 110 East Exchange in the stockyards.