Breakfast in Kitsap

Inevitably when we PCS transfer to a new duty station, we end up crammed in a room at the Navy Lodge or a local hotel for some number of days, and we'll end up searching for someplace to feed our starving children when they get up too early in the morning.  (Aside:  It's especially painful if you ever move to Hawaii and the kids wake up at like 3 a.m. Hawaii time.)

Coming here to the Kitsap peninsula, we found ourselves in the Navy Lodge once again, and as expected, we embarked on a search for breakfast.  It was harder than I thought to find a nice local place for breakfast.  There are a few chains like IHOP, Shari's, and the Pancake House, but I had to cast my net pretty wide across the peninsula to find the unique family-run local joints.

If you end up on the Kitsap peninsula looking for some breakfast, here are my three favorites (so far) in no particular order of priority:

Oak Table Cafe in Kingston, about a half hour drive northeast from the submarine base.  It is sooooo worth the drive.  Their house special is a ludicrously ginormous apple cinnamon pancake, and it was fantastically delicious.  There were some other pretty wicked items on the menu like German pancakes (a.k.a. "Dutch Babies").  The cream they serve for the coffee is real, thick, heavy cream, and it was wonderful.  I look forward to going back here to try many of the other delicacies on their menu.  The service was top-notch - very friendly, attentive, professional, and courteous.

Big Apple Diner in Bremerton.  You'll hear people alternately refer to this as either the Red Apple or the Big Apple.  It's right next door to a "Red Apple" market, but the diner is actually the "Big Apple."  You can get there from Route 3 either by the Kitsap Way or Chico Way exit.

This is a traditional soda fountain / old fashioned diner.  While I continue to be annoyed by Pepsi's monopoly on the Pacific Northwest, here at the Big Apple Diner you will find a bastion of Coca-Cola products.  Not only that, they make caramel coke!

They have a nice variety of standard breakfast items from eggs benedict to cinnamon french toast.  The service was polite and prompt.  My food seemingly appeared like a flash of lightning on my table moments after I ordered it.  Watch out for ordering things on the side though.  I had a little sticker-shock when I got the bill because I ordered a side order of scrambled eggs and bacon with my french toast.  IHOP this is not.  The side order of eggs cost me about $2.50 and the side order of bacon cost me $3.25.  Even though the bill was a little higher than I anticipated, I totally got my money's worth.

Barbie's Seabeck Bay Cafe in, well, you guessed it, Seabeck.  Alright, so I must confess that I have not yet actually eaten breakfast here... yet.  However, it is one of those small-town, very personable and intimate type cafes with excellent food, and they had a really good-looking breakfast menu.

Several people who have lived here much longer than me have said they didn't realize there was a cafe there.  I found it through Yelp when I came down from my Green Mountain hike on Saturday.  In order to get to the cafe, you have to walk THROUGH the old-fashioned Seabeck General Store.  On the BACK side of the general store, actually on the bay is a very small cafe with seating for about 12 people (two 4-tops and two 2-tops if my memory serves me correctly).  I think there might be more seating outdoors if the weather was nice.

Their lunch and dinner selections are mostly burgers, sandwiches, etc.  I followed the waitress' recommendation and had a turkey Philly with a cup of the crab, corn, and jalepeno chowder.  Both were EXCELLENT, and I'm going to make a point of driving down here to try this place for breakfast.  Oh, their homemade desserts are positively sinful, too.  In a small setting like that, the cafe wouldn't stay in business if they didn't have excellent service.  The service was very friendly, attentive, and professional.  I'll definitely be going back here.

I'll keep you posted if I find any others, but given the quality of Oak Table, Big Apple, and Barbie's, you'd have to offer a pretty strong recommendation to pull me away to someplace different.