Breakfast cafe worth standing in line for
Small venue offers sumptuous breakfasts with portions that all but guarantee leftovers
I’d had only drive-by sightings of Depression-era-like lineups for the popular all-day breakfasts. Jam Cafe plays a waiting game. Patience not being my virtue, I had avoided it.
“One of the things I love as much as the compliments about the food is when people come in and tell me the wait was crazy, but it was worth it,” says owner Mike Deas-Dawlish. When the café opens on weekends, there are up to 60 people at the gates, vying for 46 to 49 seats, depending on how many sit at four-tops.
He says the smallness is a business model to create a vibe with the lineup, and the next Jam Cafe (yes, there will be another in Vancouver) will also be a tight squeeze. It makes me feel like a pawn.
In other ways, Deas-Dawlish models hospitality. He — like Vikram Vij, who made Justin Trudeau and his father wait for a table at Vij’s restaurant — doesn’t play favourites. When his uncle was in town from England, Deas-Dawlish stood in line for him. His immediate family can’t catch a break in the queue, either. I’d like to assure him that a bigger venue is an even better business model when the food is good, and it is at Jam. The former tenant in this spot, Cafe Medina, moved to spacious digs and still has lineups.
Deas-Dawlish partnered with Jim and Candy Walmsley, who operate Jam Cafe in Victoria (the first), and he’s been managing successful Vancouver restaurants for more than two decades, first for the Sequoia Groups (Teahouse, Carderos), then for the Aburi Group (Miku, Minami). Menus are the same at both Jam Cafes, with a few specials that might differ.
I finally broke the lineup impasse by going in the middle of the week, waiting maybe 10 minutes. Once in, servers are unrelentingly cheerful, no matter how busy, and the rustic room complements a good breakfast. My friend Karen and I stared with eyes wide open and mouth agape at the food at adjacent tables. The dishes would delight a sumo wrestler, and it looked so good we could barely keep our hands off others’ food.
“I go through $1,000 a month in to-go boxes,” says Deas-Dawlish. (In other words, regulars don’t acquire sumo wrestler silhouettes.) “One lady who comes in orders a Charlie Bowl (hash browns with crumbled biscuits, diced ham, green onions, cheddar, topped with sausage gravy and two eggs) and she has enough leftovers for lunch for several days,” he says.
This breakfast menu loves you. So many comforting choices — eggs with bacon, sausage, hash browns;
buttermilk biscuit sandwiches; many breakfast bowls topped with two bright-yolked eggs; seven eggs Benedicts; toasted brioche topped with all sorts of sin; pancakes (red velvet with cream cheese frosting? pulled pork pancakes?); waffles (with or without fried chicken).
My friend ogled the huevos rancheros ($14.50) at the next table and succumbed to the dish with fried corn tortillas topped with tomatillo salsa, black beans, jalapeno, sour cream guacamole, smoked chorizo sausage, two eggs and on the side, two slices of grilled corn bread. It wasn’t a tidy dish, but it was a harmonious mash-up.
I’d caught a glimpse of the smoked steelhead Benedict ($14) and my mouth watered for it. (Eggs Benedicts come as half orders for $11.) The eggs were perfectly poached with a beautiful orange yolk and drizzled with a satiny, tasty hollandaise. Freshness is what makes you drool. Deas-Dawlish has two guys in the kitchen prepping ingredients à la minute for the cooks.
Vancouver Island hens work hard for Jam Cafe, dropping 260,000 eggs a year, according to Deas-Dawlish.
We ordered a biscuit and a side of fried chicken with gravy. The biscuit was light with great loft, but I’d say too big for the crisp-tosoft ratio; the chicken wasn’t the juiciest, but nicely fried; the gravy wasn’t delicious (thank goodness).
Dessert would require a standby paramedic, but we asked anyway. Huh! No desserts per se, but we could order waffle with fruits or berries, or brioche french toast with whipped cream and fruit, or, perhaps with banana and Nutella. Or red velvet pancake with cream cheese icing. We dithered before declining.
This rustic space (in a 115-yearold building, walls plastered with folksy old things) once housed Cafe Medina, also a popular squeeze box until it moved to bigger digs. Historic footnote: Deas-Dawlish went down to the loading dock three floors down one day and noticed a photo of the rear of the building. “Boats were docked against it. False Creek used to run right behind the building before it was filled in,” he says.