Genie's Cafe-First Restaurant on Division

It ain't much to look at, but when we cruised this joint the Saturday afternoon before, they were lining up out the door.

This is right on the edge of the industrial district and this corner is pretty much where Division actually begins. Railroad tracks are one block to the south.

Chic hideous is how I would describe the exterior. In the thousand times I've been by it, I really never noticed it, or thought it was a hippie glass unicorn selling kind of place. Maybe by design to keep squares like me at bay.

Typical old-timey cafe layout. It's actually sectioned in two, the dining area is to the left and far larger than this photo makes it appear.

Nice looking specials...
This is what I had, the House Made Sweet Sage Sausage-last item on the specials menu. Very tasty and fancy-note the parsley dust on the edge of the plate. The potatoes O'brien were nice and I think the picture shows how good it tasted. Not overpowering, nothing needed salt and also not too salty. Solid. I consider myself a biscuits and gravy man, but their specials menu was too tempting to pass up. Which means I'll have to return to this place sooner than later.

Wife had the Eggs Benedict on Crab Cakes. Note the asparagus sprigs-which gains bonus points in my book. Again, very solid dish-it looks like very good eggs benedict and that is what it was.

The bloody marys were exceptional, Wife had a horseradish mary and I had a habenero mary, which was just spicy enough to give the whole meal a nice tongue buzz.

The coffee was cafe good.

This restaurant was a very pleasant surprise and I have no idea how it has flown under my radar-I suppose the gravitational pull of the Hot Cake House(best hangover breakfast any time of day) on Powell (1002 SE Powell Blvd), which is just down the street-always pulled me away.

The restaurant is very roomy with booths and tables, well-lighted and pleasingly brisk and busy (I did not take a picture because that seemed like an annoying thing to do). There are many similar cafes in Portland-actually, there are many cafes/restaurants very much like this one-The Cricket Cafe (3159 SE Belmont St) and Tin Shed (1438 NE Alberta St)to name just two-but this one had the solid menu and food quality coupled with non-claustrophobic dining area, so I would recommend this one above the former two. As is also typical, the wait staff was all highly tatooed, attractive, local hipsters-there must be a hipster factory in Portland-very good, no-nonsense service which merited the 20+% tip.

The restroom was unisex and boy-clean (girls, only if you can't wait) and it was first thing in the morning-they could work on that. The seat was up, a credit to the polite clientelle.

The total bill was $40 + tip, pretty typical and knock $12 off the check if you don't drink the bloodys.

A remarkable start to the experiment. I expect to hit pretty solid restaurants up to the 60s and 70s where hipsterville gives way to a bit more grit.