Like any good vacation, ours needed at least one seriously righteous breakfast. After consulting several online sources (Chowhound, Yelp, etc), we decided that Front Porch Cafe was a good place to try (and it had looked good as we passed it the day before).
I’m glad we did. Situated on the north end of South Beach (i.e. the mellower and more-relaxed end of the beach), inside the Penguin Hotel (one of the apparently older Art Deco boutique hotels, albeit one that’s obviously been refurbished recently), the Front Porch is well named, since the vast majority of their seating is, well, on the front porch, or the sidewalk in front.
The place is obviously popular, it was only by luck that we managed to avoid the long line winding down the sidewalk that materialized shortly after we got seated with no wait. Watching the food coming out to the tables around us, it was obvious that the pancakes were worth ordering, so Carol ordered those. Myself, I was attracted by the Green Eggs special (eggs with pesto), mostly since I really enjoy a good pesto.
Carol really enjoyed her granola pancake with a fruit cup. While a bit heartier than most pancakes, this was a really good combination of flavors and textures, wasn’t quite as heavy as you’d think from the texture and description, and crisped up very nicely. This might be a top 10 pancake list contender.
As for my Green Eggs? While not having the most appetizing appearance, the pesto made for a very, very tasty egg dish, especially when the eggs are perfectly scrambled. It was accompanied by some nearly perfect home fries, nicely seasoned little translucent wafers of potatoes with a perfect crisp.
Front Porch is definitely one of the better breakfast spots in the area.
