Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Corner Restaurant Redeemed



The aptly named Corner Restaurant, overlooking the intersection of Broadway and Westport, was on the verge of being dropped off the bottom of my coveted breakfast destination list. Formerly a favorite with its unique mixture of customers and servers, tacky outdated decor and hip urban location, it would be sad to not have the experience.

On the last visit, what is typically an always-hot bottomless cup of coffee sat with a few bits of coffee grounds at the bottom. Empty. The pancakes were grainy. In the last two visits, they were always out of bananas, which were essential for my favorite pancake. Our traditional server, Janette, an oddly dressed bra-less counter-culture hipster looking young lady that was had the attitude and service ethic that matched the location, was nowhere to be seen. In her place was a stoned out, inattentive girl that scarcely noticed our presence.

So, no refills, no service, bad food. When a guy lives in the best breakfast neighborhood in the world in the River Market (The Diner, Succotash, Cup and Saucer, Cascone's), making a trip to Westport for a lackluster experience just doesn't compute.

Sunday morning was the "last chance" breakfast.

Our server was someone I recall seeing as a bus boy and he handled the promotion well. Not only was he back 3 times to top off the coffee, but the other servers and bussers were armed with carafes of tasty goodness as well. I think I still have a caffeine high from that morning. They had bananas. The pancakes were good. The crowd was a little strange, a little hippy, a little blue collar, a little white collar, a little retiree, a little bum.

Corner Restaurant is redeemed. I tipped heavily and left them on the breakfast list. Don't let me down again, Corner.

3 comments:

Tossed Pot said...

Do they still have the statues of bare-penised torsos hanging above the tables? Upon my first and only visit there in a morning before school at Bishop Miege in the late nineties, I somehow got seated immediately adjacent to one of those.

There are just some things in life I prefer not to see when breaking fast.

Unknown said...

I haven't noticed anything overtly phallic. I concur, I think such things would kick Corner down the breakfast chain a tad.

Anonymous said...

The "art" on the walls changes periodically. the first time I ate there, it was all pictures and sculptures of boobs. I felt cool.