Breakfast Republic
I have never wanted a breakfast more than this breakfast. Not because it was a place that had been on my list for ever, or because I had heard about a certain dish that I was dying to try, rather because it was about 4 hours over due! We had driven up to Pacific Beach from Ensenada after a pretty disastrous morning which included no power and roads blocked due to a terrible accident and we were all STARVING (and a little grumpy) by the time we got to PB.
We were also arriving on Christmas Day, which meant our options were going to be limited. Lucky for us, across the road (ish) from where we were staying there was a great breakfast joint opened and we only had a 30 min wait ie plenty of time to be drooling over the menu by the time we got in.
Al & I decided to share the most American breakfast possible in celebration of our little adventure in Mexico being finished. Breakfast Republic certainly delivered on that. Guess what we had?
Breakfast burger, breakfast hotdog & breakfast mac n cheese!!! Yes these are a thing! It basically follows the principles I use: put an egg on it and call it breakfast!! Yay!!!! They were super yummy, the hotdog surprisingly so.
This breakfast place is a great place to test out if you are in PB. After that you can do a great wander down the beach and take in the beauty of some of that San Diego county coastline. I went all the way along to La Jolla so I could see the masses of sea lions & seals that lay p along the beach there. I really love looking at those guys! I do hate though how many people think it is ok to walk around where they are trying to get so they can get ‘their perfect photo’. Don’t be such dicks people!
PB Ale House
So this was our spot for Christmas Dinner. It’s a fun, inexpensive pub that was doing a set menu that wasn’t $100 (which so many of them were!). To be honest, I was in a bit of a grumpy mood by this point so did not appreciate it as I should have. Plus, my dinner was cold and had to get sent back which is annoying. The set menu was a piece of prime rib with mash and green beans- as close as I could get to a roast dinner. It is very odd not having a roast dinner on Christmas! The prime rib was nice and I always love mash.
I think this place would be great for an after beach Sunday session.
The next day we headed up the coast towards home. I am pretty sure I could spend about 2 months driving up this bit of cast testing all the little bars, cafes & restaurants and exploring the beaches. It’s just so gorgeous.
Pipe’s Cafe
This cute little beach cafe in Cardiff-By-The-Sea just back from the beach and is so good! The little queue moves quickly and the portion sizes are made for people coming back in from a surf. It’s a big menu, with a lot of renditions of the same ingredients, which is good, because you can have what you want, how you want it. I went for a bacon scrambler that came with a side of potatoes & an english muffin and Al had the bacon burrito. All of these totally hit the spot.
After breakfast it was time to hit the road again. We did a mini stop in Oceanside because I love Animal Kingdom. This is definitely not the nicest town on the coastline. It may have been better actually in the town, but I liked Cardiff better. So we kept going up to Laguna for a little lunch stop. And because Laguna is gorgeous so you have to stop to show visitors. I love the little shops and art stores here. I keep saying that I need to come back and actually stay a night, maybe I will get that sorted this summer.
We grabbed a bite at the Laguna Beach Brewery & Grill. More like a bar than a brewery. They had a great selection of beers on tap which made Al & Chris very happy (me, as the driver, less so). The have the perfect sides to go with beer: chips & guac and poutine. Yum.
The sun set over Huntington for us as we headed home. I love Huntington and was tempted to stop for dinner, but it was only 5pm and that would have been weird. Plus, everyone was pretty tired, so we just headed back to LA. There are so many great little towns up this stretch of coast, I need to explore them all.
Jilltopia 