Too Lazy to Make Your Own Eggs? Favorite Breakfast and Brunch Spots!

Fell's Point's Blue Moon Cafe serves a dose of rock-and-roll style with great breakfast food until 3:00 p.m. during the week and 24-hours a day on weekends. Baltimoreans had long flocked to the funky, welcoming Blue Moon Cafe when Guy Fieri featured it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and made its Captain Crunch-encrusted French toast famous.  Homemade biscuits and cinnamon rolls complement a wide range of omelets and other egg dishes, pancakes and French toast, and generous servings guarantee that you will walk out with a doggie bag or a very full stomach. The Blue Moon Cafe is on one of my regular weekend running routes, and I always see a crowd of people waiting for a coveted seat in this fun and funky Fell's Point breakfast spot.  

South Baltimore's Little Havana offers a Cuban-inspired Sunday brunch, with everything from Huevos Rancheros to Churros con Chocolate.  As a bonus, you can dine outside in the nice weather.

Jimmy's Restaurant is an institution on Broadway Square in Fell's Point.  If you are looking for an inexpensive, quick, tasty breakfast, old-school atmosphere, and perhaps a glimpse of a local politician, Jimmy's is your place.

No discussion of breakfast or brunch in Baltimore is complete without mentioning Miss Shirley's, which serves some of the most mouth-watering fare anywhere.  Miss Shirley's now has three locations, two in Baltimore and one in Annapolis.  The downtown Baltimore location, pictured here, is so popular that the restaurant took over the large lobby of the office building in which it is located.  Miss Shirley's has southern roots - think cornmeal-encrusted fried oysters and Bayou omelet - but also serves goodies for people with a serious sweet tooth, such as raspberry white chocolate waffles.

A cozy yet classy spot in Federal Hill, Metropolitan Coffeehouse and Wine Bar is casual enough for a no-makeup, hair-in-a-ponytail Sunday breakfast but special enough to take out of town guests.  The menu ranges far and wide, from a breakfast banana split overflowing with berries, melon, cantaloupe, pineapple, vanilla yogurt and granola to the decidedly less healthy cheesesteak and eggs.

A no-frills diner with good food and very loyal patrons, Pete's Grille sits in the heart of Waverly next to the year-round 32nd Street Farmer's Market.

Delicious and creative food is the hallmark of Clementine restaurant in the Hamilton/Lauraville neighborhood.  Like Clementine's dinner menu, the brunch menu features dishes with far-reaching origins, from the Korean hot pot to the Indian scramble.  Clementine makes most of its own condiments, such as fig-habanero sauce and corn relish, as well as its own sausage, scones, muffins, and breakfast breads.

The Papermoon Diner offers "day-ending" breakfast ... meaning if you eat it all, you will want to retire for a long nap.  The eclectic outdoor decor - note the table settings on the three yellow moons - continues to the interior, where the Moon serves great diner food for breakfast, lunch, dinner.

Seeking to add a little class and music to your Sunday brunch?  Look no further than the Jazz Brunch at Ze Mean Bean Cafe in Fell's Point.  With its roots in Eastern Europe, Ze Mean Bean excels at pierogies, Hungarian goulash, and anything with Polish kielbasa, but this charming spot also offers classic breakfast dishes such as blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs with melted Gruyere.  The lunch and dinner menu expands to offer an even greater variety of signature Slavic dishes, such as Holupki and Chicken Kiev, and chef's specialties like rosemary pesto lamb. 

Featured in at least one previous post, Artifact Coffee serves yummy homemade pastries (I had a chocolate doughnut there this morning, in fact), great coffee from their espresso bar, and tasty breakfast sandwiches on English muffins, also homemade.  

Located within Hampden's recently restored Union Mill, Artifact Coffee is definitely a hot spot for the hip, but it has very broad appeal.  During our recent trip to Artifact, my husband and I sat near a large extended family and a guy quietly doing some homework over a cup of coffee.