Surprise - Dean's South at 6:30 a.m. for a Punta Gorda Breakfast!

Is there anything as tantalizing as the smell of coffee, fresh toast and above all bacon...... for yards away you can practically taste that smell drawing you in almost in a trance.  As good as the actual taste is, it just can't keep the promise of the smell... no matter ... it's what has drawn me to Breakfast, my favorite meal... enjoyed sometimes at home.. but most often out.

There is a specialness in breakfast in a restaurant.  One is you are not the cook or cleaner upper -- you can get a start to your day without the fuss.  And my latest local favorite is not one of the  usual suspects in town... it's a place one normally would think of later in the day for Mexican or to listen to a local band -- Dean's South of the Border.  And the reason why is largely due to Brenda.  Brenda Ryan used to run the Smokehouse on Rio Villa, which went the way of Charley, and which I still miss.  It was a cozy, real local kind of a place where fishermen headed before going out for the catch and other locals favored.   We lived closed by and loved the feel, but most of all the food and the people.  Post the hurricane, Brenda opened up at the Mason's Lodge at Taylor and Airport Road for breakfast and lunch, which we frequented until she sadly left there.    Thus, when Brenda began serving up breakfast at Dean's we were there.
'

I love that Dean's opens early for breakfast before many of the other local places -- 6:30 a.m.  Not that I can or want to make it there this early all the time, but on those days when I need to get an early start or just wake up early for some unbeknownst reason, I know I can go there.  I also love the place -- Dean's -- the old one -- was the first restaurant I went to in Punta Gorda when we were moving here, and even though later in the day it doesn't quite have the feel of that old place somehow at 6:30 in the morning it does.

Now let's talk about the food... the breakfast burritos, pancakes, huevos rancheros, .... here's the menu -- it's outrageous -- all this stuff to choose from and reasonably priced.  But Brenda knows I am regular for the spinach omelet, which is by far the best I have ever had, and is served with a variety of sides -- no grief about tomatoes instead of potatoes or grits or extra charges.   One other speciality to note is the french toast, which is actually made of cinnamon rolls.  I like when my partner orders these, so I can have one delectable bite.  Just maybe for a special treat I'll surprise Brenda and order a plate of these for myself.