The Birch Door Cafe — Restaurant in Bellingham

The moment you arrive at birch door you can sense the popularity. All ages in a college town, waiting amidst pleasant conversation as if they have eaten here before and know it's worth the wait.

Most breakfast establishments would minimally staff such an operation.

The Birch Door Cafe does not. The many vibrant staff are pleasantly moving about the spacious rooms, with their tasteful wooden bench booths and ample walking space between tables, keeping the place both tidy and available. There's almost always a wait list, but the staff is very skilled at managing it, very impressively so.

While you wait in the large lobby, there's plenty of seating, and menus are available for all if desired.

The menu itself is fun, not overloaded, and above all unique. Birch Door takes pride in the experience of their meals.

Different options for different palates, but most of all they're all very eye catching without needing extravagant themed names.

You know exactly what it is, the ingredients are very clearly listed, and everything has a delightful variety of ways the respective category can be prepared.

The coffee options are tasteful. I've had the viennese coffee before and enjoyed it very much.

This time I had the marsala Chai. They offered iced or hot. I had hot this time. It was refreshing, light, flavorful, and not filled with so much sugar that it ruined my meal. Chais are often too sweet for my tastebuds, and I was very happy to find that this was made with a delicate hand on the sugar spoon.

I've had the biscuits and gravy before, it was an experience id revisit if I had the appetite for the huge serving. I've also have the various iterations of eggs Benedict, to include salmon and sausage variants with bachemel sauce or breakfast gravy.

Today I wanted hollandaise. I ordered the eggs Nichole.i know they have a practiced chef who makes an excellent hollandaise so I asked for extra. It was a day for indulgence, I'm an adult with responsibilities and today I needed to forget them for a few minutes..

Call me an animal, a caveman even, but I wanted some meat so I ordered a sausage patty too. I also like some crunch with my potatoes, so I ordered them extra crispy.

The Eggs Nicole had a beautiful texture. They didn't just throw the ingredients together and toss it in a pan before laying them on the croissant. The Spinach was carefully layered and folded into the egg alongside my flavorful Swiss cheese and mushrooms.

The potatoes weren't just crispy,but they came in two layers and werent just cooked in oil. They were watched and tended with a careful hand, the insides stillsteamy with the potato goods but the outside so crispy that it was reminiscent of the sort of cheese you'd have melted atop your bagel or panini.

The sausage was maybe small enough for a muffin sandwich, but it was handpressed. Not a prefrozen puck of disappointment.

My server happily spied my placing it atop my eggs and commented that theyd be happy to cut it ip and place it inside next time.

And a next time...

In 1946 the incomparable Lady Day recorded the jazz tune, “Sunny Side of The Street.” She sings, “Grab your coat and get your hat. Leave your worry on the doorstep. Just direct your feet. To the sunny side of the street.” I couldn’t have said it any better Ms. Holiday. Whether you find yourself with feet draggin or a hoppin an a skippin take a chance and step on through the great big birch door at the Birch Door Cafe. Soak in the jazz classics like they’re coming from the original vinyl. Transport back in time to your grandparents. Take a seat by the window and soak in the spring rays that WA so greedily clings to. Expect smiles and laughter amongst the patrons and staff on a mellow morning. You won’t be sitting for long before your first cup of brown nectar is poured, and don’t for get the fresh squeezed OJ. Now you’re getting the picture. The eggs Benedict is creamy. The pancakes are larger than expected, and the potatoes are stacked high like the Cascades. If that’s not enough though, and you need your ModSocks blown completely off, order the Apple Pancake. It’s fluffy, custardy, and sent from the Bellingham ferries astride a corgi directly to your woody table. So fly on in during a weekday and sit by the sun soaked windows. Listen to the local line crew talk about installs and outages, and hear the wait staff joke with one another. Or, best of all, just focus on the one you love and take in the wonderful meal before you begin your morning gear up. Quid Pro Quo though… The weekends are buszzzzzy so expect a 20 to 40 minute wait if you arrive on a Saturday or Sunday at 9-11am. There is no making reservations period… Sometimes when they bring the syrup it’s been freshly rinsed off and place in a small custard cup.(Thx) But, the water gathers at the bottom and if you’re not careful the water will drip on your food while you pour your syrup. Breakfast foul! C'est la vie mon amie. That is life my friends. ...

There was a full waiting area when my party arrived and they do not take reservations. Told the wait is 20-30 minutes. The rest of my party are fine with waiting. It's just breakfast on the weekends and the menu isn't huge but, there were several items that perked my interest. Sister in-law ordered the pineapple coconut mimosa and I ordered the lavender lemonade cocktail. Both were delicious. Specials this week are the pumpkin pancake or carameled apple pancakes. My sister in-law has been here before and orders the smoked salmon scramble and asks for the pumpkin pancakes instead of the buttermilk pancakes. I ordered the mushroom, baked omelet with mushroom bachemel and also ask for the pumpkin pancake upgrade. Both egg dishes were wonderful and the pumpkin pancakes are some of the best either of us has had, definitely recommend those. My wife spies the apple pancake which is cooked in a pan upside down then baked and flipped on to a plate and ends up with a butter brown sugar crust on top when turned over onto a plate. It is the size of a frying pan and 3" tall. The waitress cautions when she brought it out "it just came out of the oven, it's really hot." It looks amazing. Its delicious too. Be warned it retains its heat. My wife also ordered the vegetarian sausage patties to cut the sweetness of the apple pancakes. Those were much better than most I've had. After a bit my wife invites me to try her pancake. I do, it's still surprisingly warm but delicious. My wife only manages to eat about a 3rd of it and the man at the next table had one and didn't finish either. When the waitress brought boxes for us, my wife asked "Has anyone ever finished one of these?" She said "no". While it's delicious, my wife found the dish over the top and would get something else next time. Definitely a recommend and if any of the mimosas look good to you, get one. Be prepared to wait, it's a...