There are the mornings when you wake up and want a downright dirty breakfast. This aforementioned "dirty" breakfast usually consists of a couple greasy eggs, some greasy hash browns, white toast, and four strips of bacon. The dirty is most often consumed when you are dirty, for any number of reasons, from waking up with a stranger, to the smell of 16 cigarettes on your clothes, to the hangover, to the matting of your hair. The dirty is served with one to two bloody marys and followed promptly by a return to the bed you left an hour ago. Sometimes the dirty breakfast can be forgotten altogether.
The opposite of the dirty, is of course, the clean breakfast. The clean breakfast is consumed after a shower, with an old friend or relative, or alone, while reading The New York Times. It is often served with a chunky, fresh-squeezed glass of juice, or a hot, quality cup of coffee. The clean breakfast is what the Bijou Cafe is all about. With fresh organic ingredients, free-range eggs, and light-on-the-oil preparation, you always leave the Bijou feeling utterly satisfied, but never bloated.
Splendid items include the pumpkin seed quesadillas, the Tofu Scramble--which mysteriously transforms bland tofu chunks into a garlicky mousse--and the Roast Beef Hash, topped with thick slices of pink beef. The Bijou's most famous dish is probably its Oyster Hash, a divine mound of heaping homefried potatoes with perfectly cooked, cornmeal-rolled oysters scattered throughout. A warning must be thrown out, however: this is a very unique-tasting dish, and if you aren't a fan of oysters, or even THINK you might not be a fan of oysters, then it probably isn't for you.
In addition to the slightly exotic, the Bijou also does the old standards quite well--in particular, pancakes. Its straight-up, good old-fashioned buttermilk pancakes are little heavenly clouds escorted to your mouth by angels of bliss. For those bored with the classics, the Bijou also offers corncakes, buckwheat cakes, and on weekdays, oatmeal cakes.
Besides breakfast, another intense draw of the Bijou is the burger. Deemed by many as the best burger in town, the hand-formed, crisp-tasting beef is actually healthy. You will experience no burger guilt after eating it, and this fantastic meat sandwich is safe enough to enjoy for brunch. Served with a tangy tomato compote and the most subtle and tender potato salad ever (with just a hint of vinegar), you run the risk, as one Bijou burger lover stated, of being "transported to another dimension."
The smart, sunny atmosphere of the Bijou is tailored to those who consider breakfast the best part of waking up, and is a great place to take out of town guests and family for a cheerful meal. It even seems sunny on cloudy days, which is one more reason why you shouldn't go if hungover. When the drunken residue blues have got you down, the last thing in the world you want to face is a friendly, brightly lit restaurant with delicious, nutritious food.
