Exploring the Vancouver breakfast scene on the cheap

Ghettobreakfastclub.com is proud to present the next event. Vote now before the polls close on Friday August 22nd @ 11:59:59am.

The date of the outing is currently scheduled for Sunday August 24th, 2008. Check back for the winner.

Voted Best Dive Bar of 2007,the Five Point in Seattle’s Belltown is a great way to get the party started… If the party started at 10AM.

From the moment you walk in you feel as though you’ve stepped into Titty Twister (minus the strippers and vampires of course).

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Photo credit: carolyn coles

Tucked not-so-quietly off the side of Clark Drive in East Vancouver, the Truck Stop Café is a great option for a fast and cheap meal. What the café lacks in feng shui it definitely makes up for in menu selection and no nonsense service.
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Save-On-Meats is a throw back to Vancouver’s past. Located at 43 West Hastings, it comes from a time long before the crack trade arrived to the Downtown East Side. Inside you will find a butcher, a convenience shop selling most basic items and a diner. Today it was our breakfast destination.

From the moment you walk in you are greeted by butchers carving some of the finest cut loins the city has to offer. A few steps further you find yourself whisked away into a convenience shop painted in the brightest of yellows. There, you will find a great selection of spices, canned goods, pastas and sugary treats including “Zebra Cookies” and “Christmas Trees.” Looking through the row of sugary treats one begins to see the form of the diner take shape.

The diner, at the back of the building, has held up pretty well given its age. Booths have been removed in favor of u-shaped formica tables - an oddity at first but once the conversation gets going you cannot help but think how brilliant they are.

The menu was simple and offered standard fare breakfast items. Although, I heard mumblings that it was possible to have the chefs cook the meat purchased from up front as well.

Our orders included eggs cooked a variety of different ways, toast, sausage, bacon, ham, t-bone steaks, french fries and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Save-on-Meats traded quality for quantity. The portions were huge. Unfortunately though, a thick grease permeated all the foods. My t-bone steak and french fries were drenched in an oily liquid. My heart quivered with each bite. In fact, by the time I finished my breakfast, I could feel my bad-cholesterol count increase 10-fold.

Based solely on its visual appeal, Save-on-Meats gets the following Ghettobreakfastclub.com rating:

Editor’s note:

The following movie is a Save-on-Meats Rap sung by our favorite DTES poet. If you encounter him around Vancouver, he will ask you to select a any word in the dictionary whereupon he will break into freestyle that will end with the selected word. This guy is really talented and we recommend a minimum donation of $5.

Nestled between the legendary Mr. Pickwicks and the un-urban Yaletown Sofa, Teresa’s Cafe offered the Ghettobreakfastclub.com crew quite a surprise.

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