Genies Cafe

After rickshaws, hospitals, cigars, and a broken foot there was only one place to go this Sunday... Genies Cafe. I woke up this morning a little depressed about my rickshaw accident (entry coming soon) and in an effort to cheer me up, Sis said, "Let's go to Genies and get your favorite benedict... there is nothing like food to cheer you up. Plus you can take more percocet if you eat something." Who could argue with that logic? Plus it is real fun to make Jen be your chauffeur, maid, and slave because you have to hold yourself up on crutches.




Genies is a really cute cafe that prides themselves on using fresh local organic ingredients. They have a great bar that serves up the Best Bloody Mary in Portland ($5) and some rather interesting cocktails like the Emergen-C Elixir, which is the hangover cure with vodka. The only bad thing about Genies Cafe is the long wait on the weekends... this Sunday we tried to use the "My sister is disabled can we get in ASAP?" and all we got back was "The wait is over an hour, feel free to grab a coffee and sit outside." I normally wouldn't wait that long, but I could see steaming plates of eggs benedict and potatoes coming out of the kitchen and I knew I had to suck it up.



After an hour our names were called and I almost cried from the excitement. We sat down and I knew there was no choice in the matter of what I was going to order... TASSO HAM BENEDICT. I get it EVERY time and I am not one of those people who orders the same thing time after time, but this dish is amazing. Jen wanted to get a Dungeness crab omelet and split my benedict and I informed her that I would NOT be sharing and she needed to get her own. She had never been to Genies, so she didn't know how good it was going to be.




Our dishes of Tasso Ham Benedict arrived with roasted potatoes. The softly poached eggs rest upon thick spicy slices of Viande's cured ham and a crisp english muffin. The hollandaise sauce is lighter than most with a beautiful lemon and butter taste... it has my vote for the best hollandaise sauce in Portland. Their potatoes are perfectly crispy and salty and beg to be dipped in the hollandaise. We washed breakfast down with glasses of Genies fresh-squeezed orange juice ($3) and a Freixenet cava split ($4), but the Bloody Marys looked mighty tempting...


What do you know? Sis was right! I felt way better after breakfast... I am sure it was the tasso and not the percocet or my new slave/ chauffeur/ maid!


Genies Cafe* 1101 SE Division* 503.445.9777* Everyday 8am to 3pm* No Reservations