Review: Doreen's elevates breakfast, lunch

Missing the Farmer’s Market? Me too. After attending the last one of the season April 18, I met a friend at Doreen’s Cup of Joe for brunch.

Now I realize I may have lost credibility with some of you already for using the term brunch, so let’s just dig right in for the good stuff.

I had the Greek omelet and substituted the hash browns for healthy sweet potato fries. Well, sweet potatoes are filled with vitamins and high in an antioxidant known as beta-carotene; but one could argue those benefits when the dish is served in fry form, I suppose.

The omelet, featuring fresh spinach and feta, may seem a bit bland for those of you more attuned to canned greens and pre-packaged feta; but a dash or two of Tabasco will liven things up a bit. The dish was a fluffy delight that I look forward to having again sometime; once I work through Doreen’s massive menu. But who’s kidding who here, the star of this plate was the sweet potato fries. Crisp, salted to perfection and served in a heaping pile. Yum!

My friend veered more toward the lunch-side of things, ordering a turkey … sandwich? Well, it’s listed under sandwiches, but it was so much more. Let me break it down for you: oven-roasted turkey breast, brie cheese, granny-smith apple and raspberry jelly served on a flaky crossiant. OMG! Right?!

If you haven’t had this sandwich, run, don’t walk, to Doreen’s. But if you are on the other side of Collier Boulevard, do use that handy and newly-installed crosswalk. I do love making traffic come to a halt just for little ol’ me.

Asked to describe his dish, my friend said it was “the perfect blend between savory and sweet.” Sounds perfect for a future ad.

His dish was companied with tradition fries. I stole a couple and realized they actually tasted even better than my sweet potato fries. But that’s probably just my the-grass-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side attitude.

On, but we weren’t done yet. We decided to share another dish and call it dessert. After all, we burned all those extra calories at the Farmer’s Market.

We had the French toast. And there was only one word for it, decadent.

It’s made with Challah bread – dough enriched with eggs, oil and sugar, the perfect choice for French toast. These slices are thick. The dish is covered with powdered sugar and whip cream and served with syrup on the side. Oh wait, that’s the regular dish. We ordered a little something, something more; the version with strawberries and mascarpone cheese. I’m sweating just recalling it. It feels so good to be so bad.

You may find the prices to be a little more steep than regular breakfast sports; but here’s nothing regular about Doreen’s, including the décor, which I’d call Key-West modern.

If you go

Doreen’s Cup of Joe

267 N. Collier Blvd, Marco Island

Sunday-Saturday, 7:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.

Doreenscupofjoe.com

239-394-2600