Reviews and comments:

Best Breakfast Spot

From this years SAN FRANCISCO magazine Best Of The Bay issue, page 34, the Editor-In-Chief's column:

My family's top 10

"Ok, you guys, write my editor's note,." I said. We were driving down I-5 after camping over Memorial Day weekend near Mount Shasta. "For our Best Of issue, we'll just pick our family's bests, and I'll take notes. Then I'm done." What some call laziness others call delegating....

We rifled through our daily lives.
Best Breakfast: to be had at the sun-drenched Doyle Street Cafe in Emeryville, where co-owner Albert Masarweh has become a friend and the pancakes make Neil grunt with happiness...

- Bruce Kelley, Editor-in-Chief

NEW!!!

THE BEST '07

July 2007

BEST OF THE BAY AREA issue, July 2001

Best Breakfast Spot

A TABLE FOR YOU

"At 9 a.m.on a weekend, most of us would die for a reliably relaxed and wait-free 20-table spot that serves up lattes in cobalt blue ceramic jars along with great food. But, of course, around here that's a complete fantasy, yes? Not if you make your way to the Doyle Street Cafe, an artsy eatery on an untraveled corner in weekend-deserted Emeryville. Order the mildly tangy Miguel Moraga omelet with fresh green chilies or silver-dollar pancakes made with sour cream, and enjoy the sun streaming through the expansive warehouse-style windows and co-owner Albert Masarweh's attentions. Just get there before 10 a.m., when even undiscovered places this good pick up speed." - B.K.

The Oakland Tribune,

January 16, 2002

Dining Out

Really must do breakfast sometime at these cafes

By Josie Aaronson-Gelb and Danielle Centoni

Breakfast isn't something you do with just anyone. You never hear two estranged colleagues bump into each other on the street and say, "We really must do breakfast sometime."

Breakfast is reserved for good friends and lazy Sunday mornings when all the kids are home for the holidays. Breakfast is for family, and family is what the Doyle Street cafe in Emeryville is all about.

This cheery breakfast spot is owned and operated by Albert and George, the Masarweh brothers. This is their first restaurant together, but they've been roommates and co-conspirators for years, priding themselves on theri inseparability and their omelets.

The Doyle Street Omelet ($7.50) is a customer favorite and is a tribute to California aqdvertising campaigns - California eggs filled with house-made Creole sauce, California avocados and real California pepperjack cheese.

Egg breakfasts are served with optional side dishes. Dieters can get fresh fruit instead of home fries, but then they'd be missing out on thick hunks of quartered potatoes fried to crispy perfection.

Also for the light eater is the egg white scramble ($7.75), but it is watery with too many winter tomatoes and flavorless mushrooms.

Buttermilk beauties

If you want to look like you know what you are doing at the Doyle Street Cafe, you'll forgo the omelets and head straight for the fruit pancakes ($7.25). Stretching a grand eight inches across the plate and drowning in butter, these buttermilk beauties come with pecans, bananas or blueberries - or all three. They are just sweet enough that you won't need any syrup and decadent enough that you won't want to give up even one bite.

If you want to gild the lily, try an eggnog latte ($1.95) available during December. Served up in a ridiculously tall but funky green mug, the nutmeg-rich breww will put you in the holiday spirit with a jolt, although if you're dining out with family, you're probably already there.