Gateway to Breakfast

Quick, name a place to eat in Gateway. Okay, now picture Gateway on your mental map of Portland.

Give up on both? Technically, what Portlanders refer to as Gateway is a pretty large business district that includes the Parkrose Heights, Parkrose, Madison South, Montavilla, Hazelwood, Wilkes, Russell, Centennial and Mill Park neighborhoods. It lies just east of the Gateway Transit Center, and its “downtown” area stretches along Northeast Halsey from 102nd to around 114th.

And as for food, a good introduction to any neighborhood is to go there for breakfast. In Gateway’s case, there are two places, near each other, that come at breakfast from slightly different angles. Sitting as they do on opposite sides of Halsey, you might say they form a kind of … gateway to the neighborhood.

Gateway Breakfast House

The defining moment of our trip to the Gateway Breakfast House was when Tom’s pancakes arrived. I’ve never heard a table of friends let out a collective “Wow” like the one generated by the size of that order of pancakes. It was part awe, part humor and part fear. Tom looked like he had walked into a pickup basketball game and found out he was guarding Shaquille O’Neal.

Seven of us each ordered something, we could have easily fed a dozen people, and the pre-tip bill was only $53. The Gateway does breakfast the way James Michener writes books.

The Gateway is also friendly, crowded on weekends and has a vibe that’s part homey-family and part, well, mildly odd. For example, even when the lines are long, the Gateway doesn’t keep a seating list; it just sort of...works out.

You sit down to a cup of coffee in those truck-stop brown mugs and water in plastic cups. You read the menu and notice both hamburger steaks and hamburger patties (at which point you know you’re not in for an exotic meal). The ribeye-and-three-egg platter is described as “seasoned.”

All of this makes you think the waitress is probably the daughter or niece of the hostess, who’s married to the cook, who’s minding the place for his old man. I don’t know if any of it is true; it just feels that way.

The building used to be a Chinese place and, later, a donut shop, so the architecture isn’t much of a turn-on. Hanging from the ceiling are about two dozen large, white orbs of different sizes, some of them lights, in a pattern that suggests a bizarro solar system, or, as Leslie put it, “The molecular structure of fat.” Her thought seemed reasonable when my pork-chop-and-eggs special arrived: two large pork chops, three eggs, a half-plate of hashbrowns, and four pieces of toast.

The size of these portions, I mean...consider the country breakfast. You get a pancake or French toast or a waffle or toast or biscuits and gravy. And you get two eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon or links. And you get a choice of one pork chop or ham or sausage or pastrami or chicken-fried steak. For, like, seven bucks.

Though we could hardly walk out, we had a good time; good friends, big portions, and cheap prices will do that. The world o’ pancakes (my term), for example, was only $3.25 (single big pancake) and the two big pancakes are $4.25. The staff was friendly and attentive, and they volunteered to let us pay separately at the register. (Even our check was about four pages.) We saw kids and old folks and families and loners and regulars and everything, and now I know why they always have a line outside this place: they feed the hell out of you!

Wait: Up to 30 minutes on weekends
Seating: About 60 in tables and booths.
Large groups: Sure, but send somebody early on weekends.
Portion Size: Shock and awe.
Changes: Just tell ‘em what you want!
Coffee: Farmer Brothers.
Other drinks: The usual, no booze.
WiFi? No

11411 NE Halsey Street
Portland, OR
503.256.6280
Hours: Monday through Saturday 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; Sunday 7:00 a.m. to 3 p.m.; breakfast served all the time
Average price range, with coffee and tip: $8-11 (they take cards)

King’s Omelets

If the defining moment of a trip to Gateway Breakfast House was the arrival of a heapin’ helpin’ of pancakes, then the defining moment at King’s was when a table of about 10, average age pushing 70, started signing “happy birthday” and the waitress came out with a homemade lemon cake and lit a candle on top of it.

You don’t have to work too hard to find better food than King’s—in fact, Gateway Breakfast House fits the bill—but you’ll eat a lot of breakfasts before you find a staff and customer base more friendly and connected with one another.

“70s” might be a key word for many of the customers, and for the décor of the place. With its brick walls, green plastic tablecloths, fake skylights, fake plants, little plastic tubs of creamer, and Boyds coffee brewed to the strength of herbal tea, the place might remind you of Grandma’s. And that’s not even a putdown. Grandma was friendly and sweet, wasn’t she? I have a friend who went into King’s once, ordered an omelet, and came back about two months later to find that the waitress remembered what omelet she ordered!

Ah, yes, omelets. As one might expect, there are a lot of those at King’s—22 of them, in fact. The priciest is the Pacific, with Swiss cheese, tomato, green onion and shrimp ($8.25). The scariest is the Cowboy: a ham-bacon-onion-“chunk potatoes” affair covered in Country Gravy, served with two biscuits and more gravy on the side—all for $8.25. The cheapest omelet is a basic cheese (choice of American, Swiss, cheddar or pepper jack) at $5.75.

Now, look back on those cheese choices. You didn’t see asiago there, did you? Nor bleu, nor chevre. In fact, the 22 omelets at King’s appear to come from a total of maybe 15 ingredients. This simplicity, combined with the super-professional wait staff, meant that our food came out quick and hot, if not on the cutting edge of cuisine. And with 10 breakfast plates (including a “big,” a “combo” and a “King’s”) plus four crepes, half a dozen kinds of pancakes, and eight waffles, it’s guaranteed they have whatever you’re in the mood for.

I was there with a group of six. There were two other tables occupied in the main room, both with groups bigger than ours, and in the back, by the bathroom, sat two teenagers, both playing games on their phones. As I dragged my very full belly out towards the door, the waitress thanked me, called me “Hon,” and then turned to the birthday table and said, “How’s the cake—and isn’t it Eric’s birthday next week?”

Wait: Can’t imagine.
Seating: About 60 in tables and booths.
Large groups: Easy.
Portion Size: Reasonable, especially for the price.
Changes: Just tell ‘em what you want!
Coffee: Boyd’s.
Other drinks: The usual, no booze.
WiFi? No

10711 NE Halsey Street
Portland, OR
503.253.0808
Hours:Daily 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., breakfast served all the time
Average price range, with coffee and tip: $8-11 (they take cards)