Al's by myself...

Al's Breakfast
413 14th Ave SE
Minneapolis, MN 55414

It has become a bit of a tradition of mine to go to Al's during spring break week. Al's breakfast is somewhat of a legend in the Twin Cities, as it is known for one of the best breakfasts in town along with being known for it's amazingly narrow interior. Seriously There are fourteen stools in the entire place and people who are waiting wait directly behind the diners, pressed against the wall. It is an experience well worth it for the delicious food that is served. But, we'll get to the food.

The spring break tradition began with my friend Sarah when we were both staff at the University, and after she moved away, I try to keep the tradition in place. In theory, as Al's is located in the Dinkytown area of Minneapolis, right by the University of Minnesota, it makes a lot of sense to go when there are less students around. Less students should equal less waiting. For, you see, Al's is almost always pretty packed.

On Wednesday, I decided to go to Al's for lunch, since it was Spring Break week and, well, I had been walking by it every single day for months and really needed to go. Plus, now I have a blog and I could blog about it. I think that that was the true kicker there, but we won't talk about that right now.

It was busier than I anticipated, and I had to wait about twenty minutes for my seat. There was a slight moment of panic when a young woman walked in after me and tried to get a seat with her friend who was already seated and all kinds of Al's rules were being broken. You wait for your party! You stand in line and the person who was waiting longest gets seated! You may have to move down a stool to accommodate parties of more than one! You follow the rules, you do not make up your own!!! Needless to say, girl walked out before she could have possibly budged in front of me. THANK GOODNESS. Finally, I sat down and did not even have to look at my menu to know what I wanted: the Jose. Poached eggs with amazing salsa and melted cheese served over the greasiest, best hash browns that you could ever want. Al's offers many other great diner options: pancakes (buttermilk, blueberry, walnut, blackberry, and maybe some other varieties), french toast, scrambled eggs, a few poached egg meals similar to the Jose but inferior in my opinion. They also have seasonal "specials" that seem to be posted each and every time I go there, which is about once a year at this point....that kind of negates the "special" in my mind, but patrons seem to enjoy them. The scruffy nice guy next to me ordered the "spring special" (if I recall correctly: scrambled eggs with asparagus and scallions served with hollandaise sauce and toast) and seemed to enjoy it. The specials are dead cheap and do look pretty amazing (I, personally, would go for the seasonal special with fresh tomatoes, mozzarella and basil, if I were not so hung up on the Jose).

Al's servers are great about coffee and water refills - I suppose that it helps that all their customers are right in front of their faces, but, still. It's nice. Most of the food is made on a big griddle at the front of the restaurant, so one's food kind of ends up smelling like a diner after eating there. It is advisable to have some Febreeze on hand when you go to Al's, unless you do not mind smelling like diner for an entire day.

My food this time around was good, but not as oh my god as I had hoped that it would be. It could be that I set my expectations way too high and was hoping that Al's could erase some of the bitterness that I still have for Butter. But, once I was seated and ordered, it came out pretty quickly and it was a great experience. A lot of Al's has to do with the "experience".

I've lifted some pictures from a recent (yikes!) health code article about the restaurant. The pictures do not show the true grittiness of the place, but it's gritty in a good way (like I would ever mean that as a bad thing. Pfft.).







Overall, I would say that Al's gives me everything I want in a breakfast: ambience, lots of coffee, and greasy food. I would consider Al's a must for those interested in breakfast in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro.