The Search for the Best Brunch in Bellingham

My first month here in Bellingham has included, above all else, three things: working, walking, and eating.  I have my first real desk job - at an amazing inspiring non-profit - but have had to slowly adjust to sitting for 8 hours five days a week.  Meanwhile I've made it my goal to make one tank of gas last my entire summer here - a sizable challenge in my beast of car - so have taken to the streets in my walking shoes.  While my job may be exciting and fascinating, and walking around Bellingham is certainly beautiful, these first two activities are really just space fillers for when I can't be enjoying that last and greatest activity: eating.

Boulevard Park in the evening takes the 'scenic walk' to a whole new level.  Somewhere between the picturesque boardwalk, the distant islands, and the silhouetted mountains on the horizon, I stopped believing it was real life.

At work I spend a sizable portion of my time making lists of places I want to eat and planning out how to fit as many of them as possible into my free hours.  95% of my walking is done either to or from a meal, a snack, or a mid-afternoon-dessert.  Bellingham may be small as cities go, but it sure isn't lacking in good places to eat - and I'm on a mission to eat at them ALL.

Brunch, is simply and objectively the best meal.  It comes at most once a week - unless you're ambitious, like me - and has an aspect of lazy happy sunday-ness about it.  The fact alone that you're eating brunch is an occasion to treat yourself.  No other meal is that special!  So upon finding myself in such a culinarily delectable city as Bellingham at the beginning of June, with a free week before my job started, I dedicated myself to eating brunch every single day.  So I can speak with some authority about the brunch-serving establishments in Bellingham.  While my search for the perfect brunch will probably never be complete, here is what I have to say about the Best Brunch in Bellingham (of course I couldn't just choose one - as if brunch could be that one-dimensional!):

Best Omelette... EVER:

This was my very first morning in town, back when I still felt awkward about eating in a restaurant alone - an art I have long since perfected.  Sitting by the window of the Harris Avenue Cafe on a classically grey morning was a perfect beginning.  The streets of Fairhaven, even in the rain, are so appealing that you can't help but be charmed.  The cafe itself is small and cheerful.  I found myself there on a Monday morning so I avoided the weekend brunch-rush - regardless this place would be well worth the wait.
I'm fairly certain that I have never eaten, seen, or even imagined an omelette as delicious as the Sitka omelette at the Harris Avenue Cafe.  An omelette of smoked salmon, roasted garlic, tomatoes, fetta and pesto, it was everything an omelette should be and more.  AND it arrive at my table less than ten minutes after I ordered it.  It must also be said that their bacon is exceptional - all bacon is good, this stuff is heavenly.

An Alarmingly Extensive Menu:

Scanning the menu at Little Cheerful Café downtown is an event in itself.  I'm the type of person who experiences acute food-stress upon being presented with too many options.  Having to choose just one can be too much for my heart to handle. You can imagine my strife then upon opening Little Cheerful's 3 page long menu and realizing that not only did I have the usual brunch-time challenge of choosing between breakfast and lunch, but once I narrowed down my search I would still be presented with 15 types of omelets, an array of different varieties of hash-browns, and about twenty possible toppings for pancakes including such novelties as cheddar cheese, candied pecans and french fries.  After several long minutes of panic, in which hyperventilation was only barely kept at bay, I settled on pancakes with peanut butter and raspberries.  The pain this decision caused me cannot be over-stated, but boy was I rewarded.  I mean, how could peanut butter raspberry pancakes possibly be bad? 
I have since returned and gotten one of their omelettes and several of the hash-browns selections and have yet to be disappointed. If you think your heart can handle choosing between the myriad of delicious options, I would highly recommend anything at Little Cheerful.

And the Best of the Best:

This is the Mount Bakery's version of eggs benedict with tomato and
spinach... and there's a waffle under there sooo, yup.

I'm not sure that there is any better place in the whole world than the Mount Bakery Café.  I didn't find this slice of heaven until after my week-long brunch extravaganza had concluded, and I had started work.  By some miracle of fate my office happens to be on the same block this cafe, a cupcake bakery AND and amazing coffee shop. (Someone up there wants me to be fat).  So I wandered in one day looking for a place to buy some lunch... little did I know my life would be changed forever.
The Mount Bakery has it all.  Their crepe's are absurdly delicious - the veggie crepe has not only the usual spinach and peppers but also roasted zucchini and parsnips, and the crepe-du-jour always calls to me as I walk past.  Their hot sandwiches are equally mouth-watering - the hot veggie sandwich is massive and so good it's nearly cruel.  They also serve their eggs benedict on waffles, so that kind of speaks for itself.  In addition to all this, they have a case of fresh-made pastries and pies and cakes that send me into sort of jittery panic as I realize that there simply is not time for me to try them all.
The people who work here are friendly; the inside is cheerful; their plates don't match; and the portions are big enough that you feel just the perfect amount of guilty about eating it all.

What more can I say? This place essentially encapsulates for me everything that brunch should be. Happiness is the Mount Bakery Cafe.

Could a lunch break get any better? Nope.

Other wonderful places to brunch:  

1) Magnolia Creperie in Fairhaven (try their baked crepes); 2) the Old Town Cafe on Holy st.; 3) the Daisy Cafe on Magnolia


Eat up!