Guest blog: Breakfast at the Omelettry

Jul 9, 2010 by Carolyn    2 Comments    Posted under: Austin Eats

One of the things that I love best about coming back to visit Austin – besides the sunshine and the people who loan me their couches to sleep on – is the food. The food here is really, really good, and frankly the whole lot of you can’t possibly appreciate it unless you also have been forced to relocate yourself to some Midwestern outpost of academia where hot wings are a food group and bratwurst is considered ethnic cuisine. As a result, I’ve volunteered to do a few reviews of the fantastic eateries I’ve stuffed my face at since I’ve been back.

The first I wanted to mention was the Omelettry, a staple of every Sunday morning brunch, or really any morning you happen to have time to stuff down one of their enormous, delicious omelets. Their pancakes and French toast are also good, but their specialty is large, overstuffed omelets with fresh fruit and toast on the side. The restaurant itself is an edgy version of a classic diner, with well-tattooed waitstaff, local art on the walls, and plenty of coffee refills. It does bear a strong resemblance to both Magnolia and Kerby Lane, two other breakfast heavyweights in town. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, folks.

Having been back plenty of times over the course of the several years I actually lived here, I can recommend pretty much all of the omelets. I can’t ever quite decide on my favorite. The Popeye special is a close front-runner, with spinach, bacon, sautéed onions and cheese. The Spanish omelet, which is smothered in salsa, and the mushroom omelet in a wine sauce, are also contenders. This particular trip back, I had the broccoli sour cream omelet, with cheddar cheese, broccoli, and a really awesome lemon sour cream sauce. Friends with more of a sweet tooth love the oatmeal, which comes in a huge bowl just slathered with brown sugar and butter, or the gingerbread pancakes.

The kitchen is generous with portions and with butter. Prices run from about $6-10 a plate. If you come on the weekend, there’s a bit of a wait, so come prepared to sit on the porch and flip through a copy of the Chronicle until a table is free. There’s also a thrift store next door that is sometimes open, where we go poke around during the wait. The service is corporate, so the tip jar is up at the cashier’s desk, where paying your check requires cash (there is an ATM just beside it for those of us who never remember that).

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