All-day breakfast in the West End
Dick's might be your last resort, but in the West End, Ellen's Southern Kitchen is your first one, because the place serves breakfast all damn day long. Named for one of the owner's home-cooking moms, the black & white diner's centered around a wooden bar that lies opposite windows -- and a patio -- that spy out on old warehouses like some 1930s G-man. Designed by a Butcher Shop Steakhouse/Mercury Grill vet, the menu starts off with (and keeps going with -- hence "all day") biscuits-'n-gravy; wheat toast topped w/ sliced garlic, 'shrooms, bacon, scrambleds, TX goat cheese & chives; and poached grits w/ cheese, bacon, tomatoes, garlic & spinach, supporting two poached eggs & Hollandaise -- Derek Hollandaise being something you'd find in a jam. Mains stretch from blackened catfish, to the BLTEA (BLT + fried egg & avo), to a USDA prime meatloaf that'll make you fat out of hell.Beyond six local taps like Franconia, there's a "limited, but quality" cocktail program, and a full lineup of Seattle's Best coffee, guaranteed to take you from "man Thursday night was rough" to "T.G.I. Fridays!" in no time.