Sneaky Dee's

At Sneaky Dee's on Saturday morning, our waiter is looking a little rough, but he manages a smile before tottering away to get our tea. Weekend breakfasts here appeal to two groups: the haven't-gotten-home-yet crowd, and the live-around-the-corner-hung-over crowd.

This morning, I'm falling into the second category. During the week, if I order breakfast between 11 and 4, I can also get free internet on my laptop...which means a person can eat cheap, decent eggs and bacon--with awesome hashbrowns--while attempting to get some work done. Multi-tasking at its best: I could have posted this review while still eating the breakfast.

But it's Saturday, so instead, I'm reading the paper and trying to lurch into conversational mode; fortunately, my friend is in the same state. He orders the basics: eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, toast. The plate arrives, generous, with no parsley or tomato to mess things up. It's exactly the kind of grease, starch & protein combination that soothes hangovers around the globe.

I have a sweet tooth, so I have French toast; three slices arrive, not soggy (hooray); they have that ever-so-slightly metallic, eggy taste to them. I eat the side of bacon soaked in syrup, because hey, it reminds me of going sugaring-off when I was a kid in Quebec.

What really wins me over about Sneaky Dee's is the fact that, at night, the beer and nachos are fantastic preliminaries to seeing a band upstairs, while in the morning, they still manage to pull off an absolutely reliable breakfast. As if a grungy dive hooked up with a 1950s diner, and this, especially at breakfast, is their love child.

Food photos by Lisa. Interior photo by Tanja in the blogTO Flickr Pool.