{"id":226119,"date":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1970-01-01T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/two-truckers-and-a-frittata\/"},"modified":"1970-01-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1970-01-01T08:00:00","slug":"two-truckers-and-a-frittata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/two-truckers-and-a-frittata\/","title":{"rendered":"Two truckers and a frittata"},"content":{"rendered":"

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>\n

It was the crack of dawn. I had just exited my vehicle in the immense parking lot of Perry\u2019s Cafe when a 20-something guy emerged from the cab of a U-Haul truck a few yards away. Unshaven and wearing sandals over soiled white socks, he asked if I\u2019d eaten here before.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, several times,\u201d I replied as we concurrently moseyed into the 34-year-old diner.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Little has changed at Perry\u2019s Cafe since it opened in 1985. (Photos by Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been on the road all night from Arizona and I heard they have great coffee and omelets,\u201d he said in eager need of both.<\/p>\n

Moments before he seized a stool at the 13-seat lunch counter, and as I settled into a nearby booth alongside a partition of glass blocks, I advised him to try a frittata instead of an omelet. Seemingly unfamiliar with the dish, he nodded amicably and took up conversation with a folksy waitress, telling her about the moving business he runs for \u201cZonies\u201d who relocate to California.<\/p>\n

I ordered the Mexican frittata \u2014 a departure from my usual Italian sausage frittata. Minutes later, a ruggedly handsome man donning a ball cap with the name of some labor union on it sat in the booth in front of mine. He knew a few surrounding customers and ordered ham steak with eggs. Through eavesdropping, I learned he drives produce to Midwest cities and sleeps on a cot inside his 12-wheeler during the trips. He routinely kicks off his journeys with breakfast here.<\/p>\n

\"Two
The Mexican frittata<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Perry\u2019s has been something of an urban truck stop and blue-collar haven ever since the late Constantine Georgakopoulos founded the two-room restaurant in 1985. Located at the lip of Old Town, it has also become a haunt for office workers and hipsters seeking anti-trendy food served in brisk, generous fashion, which is precisely what you\u2019ll find here from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.<\/p>\n

The three-egg frittatas are about as elaborate as things get. The menu refers to them as \u201cfancy omelets.\u201d Technically, they are open-face omelets that don\u2019t get folded over. With nearly a dozen types to choose from, you end up with mouthfuls of meats and\/or veggies entrapped in the eggs.<\/p>\n

My Mexican frittata contained an abundance of shredded beef and was covered with a blotchy mix of jack and cheddar cheeses. Its puffy mass and craggy exterior caught the eye of the U-Haul driver, who jokingly blurted, \u201cThat looks like a brain with melted cheese on it.\u201d He was right, although I suspected this was the first frittata he ever laid eyes on.<\/p>\n

Despite his unsavory comment, the dish was appealing. But not as stimulating as the sausage frittata.<\/p>\n

\"Two
Refried beans and tortillas are served with whipped butter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From a choice of sides that include home fries or hash browns, I chose a generous serving of refried beans made with lard. They come with flour or corn tortillas, a ramekin of mediocre salsa, and a scoop of whipped butter, which pairs as swimmingly to frijoles and tortillas as it does to pancakes.<\/p>\n

\"Two
A short stack of buttermilk pancakes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In past early-afternoon visits, when families, professionals and younger folk start appearing, I\u2019ve forked through a range of dishes \u2014 all tasty fare that hardly fits into today\u2019s \u201celevated\u201d category.<\/p>\n

Though the Reuben sandwiches are made with lean and thickly cut corned beef, which isn\u2019t roasted in-house, the corned beef hash originates from industrial cans. And I don\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n

\"Two
A classic Reuben<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Various berries served atop pancakes and French toast start out frozen. Only the bananas are fresh. No big deal.<\/p>\n

As for those coins of sausage loaded into my go-to frittata \u2014 or the chorizo I enjoyed previously in an omelet served with a preformed tablet of hash browns \u2014 a waitress once indicated to me those foods also hail from big distribution companies.<\/p>\n

But the cooking at Perry\u2019s is gut-warming for the most part. Prices are still reasonable for the ample portions you get, and service is fast and chummy.<\/p>\n

\"TwoIn addition to all-American breakfast and lunch fare, the menu embodies an assortment of pedestrian Mexican dishes such as tacos, enchiladas and burritos that I\u2019ve yet to try.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur menu is almost exactly the same as when we first opened,\u201d said the founder\u2019s grandson as I was paying my bill at the front register.<\/p>\n

In an age when restaurants come and go at the drop of a crumb, and when consumers have grown increasingly restless for the latest and greatest kitchens, it\u2019s nice to step into a place that knows when to leave good-enough alone. As shown by its bustling atmosphere, resistance to change doesn\u2019t always chase people away.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de 'Secret San Diego' (ECW Press) y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del ex San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en\u00a0 fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Frank Sabatini Jr. It was the crack of dawn. I had just exited my vehicle in the immense parking lot of Perry\u2019s Cafe when a 20-something guy emerged from the cab of a U-Haul truck a few yards away. Unshaven and wearing sandals over soiled white socks, he asked if I\u2019d eaten here before.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":816,"featured_media":226120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Two truckers and a frittata","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11548],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-la-mesa-courier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/816"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}