Breakfast in Bridgetown

The Food Dude has done another restaurant survey over at PortlandFoodandDrink.com. He’s posting results a few at a time, and the latest batch includes breakfast. Read ‘em here. (Also check out categories 1-6 and 7-10.)

A couple of things strike me:

Screen Door and Simpatica are clearly the two most popular places, and no argument here. What’s interesting is that Screen Door ranks higher on the “best” list, and Simpatica on the “makes me happy” list.

My theory on this is twofold: for one thing, eating at Screen Door is more of a challenge, with heinous lines, a mostly outside wait, and lots of noise inside. So maybe it’s a slightly less happy experience. Also, Simpatica — because of what it does on Fridays and Saturdays — is something other than a normal restaurant, something that seems real Portland-y, so it makes us feel good about our city.

It’s also interesting that Broder makes the “happy” list but not the “best” list — with the caveat that we don’t see results 4 through whatever. This goes with my take on Broder: it’s a little more cute novelty than really good food. And maybe people like it because people like it, if that makes any sense. I might have to put in on my Cadillac List. In fact, Screen Door is already on there.