Blame me. I made a rookie mistake today. I admit it. My choice for this morning’s breakfast was closed and I had no back-up plan! Rookie! I had actually braved a trip into Providence to try out The Blue Cottage on Hope St, based on their site saying, “open”, only to find it, like I mentioned already, CLOSED! What to do? Well, because he’s my breakfast wingman, Ray had a place in mind. And that’s how we ended up in North Providence at the Geneva Diner at 1162 Douglas Ave. The Geneva is old school. Counter space, table, cooktop right out front. This is a place you’ve all seen, with minor variations, all the times you’ve been out for breakfast. It’s familiar and comfortable. The coffee was a bold Columbian that took me two cups to appreciate. Its flavors were almost too much (think strong to the point of bitterness) but were reined in on the second cup. Perhaps my mouth wasn’t ready for such character! We never did find out the brand, however. Sorry about that, chief! (and if that remark reminds anyone of a great Buck Henry TV show, you are old). I selected the Rhody Sunrise instead of my usual. The Rhody is a grilled corn muffin, sliced, served with two sunny-side-up eggs, bacon and home fries. Sounds good and, if you look at the picture, looks good, too. But! It’s taste that matters. And, I’m sorry to say, that the Rhody Sunrise just wasn’t that good. And that’s too bad because, after the coffee, I was hoping the breakfast would be up to its standard. The bacon was bacon. It takes a lot to mess up bacon. This bacon wasn’t messed up, so, nice! The home fries, though, were, flavorless and dry. Butter, fat, seasonings seemed to be absent. The muffin, too, was dry and could have used (more?) butter from the cooktop. It just crumbled when I put a fork to it. The one thing that might have saved everything, the wonderful liquid gold from the sunny-side-up eggs, was absent. They looked as if they were going to be runny and juicy but were overcooked enough that there was very little that actually ran down the muffin. Rats! Normally, I clean my plate at breakfast. Not today. The anonymous coffee gets an 8.7 but then there’s a sharp drop off where the home fries get a 4 and the breakfast, as a whole, and only because I love (and who doesn’t) bacon, gets a 5, giving the Geneva Diner a 5.9
After the snowstorm it was good to get out for breakfast with Mike and catch up on all the important things, Super Bowl, baseball season, and stuff. We always manage to talk about “stuff”. And if your were eavesdropping this morning, or really any morning we head out for breakfast, yourr head would be spinning at the way we jump from one topic to another in the blink of an eye. I guess rambling would be an appropriate term to use. Mike was going to take us to a breakfast place somewhere in North Providence, but even though the posting said it was open…not so much. You can’t believe everything you read on the Internet, except us of course. We wound up at a place I had on my list of options in North Providence, the Geneva Diner on Douglas Ave. Geneva is in Switzerland right? This place offered Mexican specialties, go figure. The waitress brought our coffee, the carafe said New England Coffee but she didn’t think that it was, she said it was Colombian. FOr the first time in a very long time, Mike and I differed after our first and second sips. I thought is was pretty good, maybe a little above average. Mike actually reached for the sugar. I think he changed a little, but you can read his opinion above. I had to try the Mexican omelet, with linguica, onions, green peppers and jalapeno, and pepper jack cheese topped with some salsa. The home fries looked great but were actually disappointing. They were well cooked but there was no flavor. Salt didn’t help. Some butter, or even the grease from linguica or even just paprika, would have made a big difference. Very dry, Now for the omelet. I really liked everything about it, well cooked, nice presentation, all of the ingredients were done perfectly. I think I forgot about the Jalapenos. Took a big bite and called the waitress for water. More heat than I care for but still a super Mexican breakfast omelet. Coffee, 6.5; home fries, 5; meal,7; overall, 6.2.
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