
For the past three decades, few things in Pacific Beach are as certain as the crowd that forms around Broken Yolk Cafe on weekend mornings. The breakfast and lunch restaurant on Garnet Avenue is celebrating its 31st anniversary on Feb. 23 and 24. “Pacific Beach has been good to the Broken Yolk. The customers are great and it’s a vibrant community,” said Broken Yolk owner John Gelastopoulos. “We hope that we’ll keep it going for another 31 years.” Broken Yolk Cafe is sharing the anniversary celebration with its patrons. On Feb. 23 and 24, it will offer a limited menu of its most popular items for $3.10 each to go along with 99-cent drinks. “We’ll give the people a little bit of a break,” Gelastopoulos said. “We try to serve as many people as we can.” Broken Yolk Cafe built its reputation with homey food in large portions. For breakfast, four-egg omelets are standard, and at lunch time half-pound burgers will curb any hunger. “Our food is like grandma or your mother makes it,” Gelastopoulos said. “That’s what we’re all about. We’re comfort food.” Also on the menu is the “Ironman Special,” which comes on a 15-inch pizza pan and is free if eaten in under an hour. For those who want to try to join the nearly 500-member wall of fame, the special is a 12-egg omelet with mushrooms, onions, American cheese with chili on top that comes with two biscuits and a generous serving of home fries. In addition to serving fresh food, Gelastopoulos said Broken Yolk Cafe’s size — which includes an upstairs outdoor patio — also makes it unique. When full, Broken Yolk can sit about 300 people. “You don’t usually see a restaurant, especially with breakfast and lunch, have that kind of a capacity and still fill it up,” Gelastopoulos said. “I don’t think there’s any other restaurant as big as ours with just breakfast and lunch.” Since its first location opened in Pacific Beach in 1979, Broken Yolk Cafe has expanded and now has restaurants in Eastlake, La Costa and the Gaslamp Quarter downtown. Gelastopoulos said a fifth Broken Yolk Cafe is slated to open in San Marcos in the coming months. BROKEN YOLK CAFE WHERE: 1851 Garnet Ave. HOURS: Open daily from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. INFORMATION: www.brokenyolkcafe.com