*** Brian's has closed
The Missus isn't really a "breakfast person" in the conventional sense. That is, She sometimes craves breakfast for dinner. And on a recent evening She had a craving for Wheat Germ Pancakes from Brians'. And Brians' serves breakfast all day.
Yes, it's called Brians', not Brian's, after the two Owners, who are both named Brian. I did a quick "handbag check", the Missus had rotated out the "Dior" and replaced it with a Fendi, so hopefully the Dior curse hadn't followed us. We drove up to Brians' which is located on busy Washington Street in Hillcrest, and is one of those popular and sometimes very crowded neighborhood diners.
We have always had very friendly service at Brians', and today was no exception. Since it was still fairly early for dinner, and the sun was out, we decided to sit on the patio.
The Missus ordered Her Wheat Germ Pancakes, but they were out, so She had the Whole Wheat Pancakes instead($5.99).
The full stack of whole wheat pancakes consist of 3 plate sized ground wheat pancakes. The 
pancakes were slightly nutty, and not overly sweet. The texture was slightly dense, but not as "chewy" as regular pancakes tend to be. With whipped butter, and maple syrup, the Missus stated that these were delici-yoso!!!
I've had a few dishes at Brians', and have found that the portions are always generous, but it's been hit and miss. Though today I decided to pull out all the stops, and order something interesting from the menu.
Yep, I got a Frankie Burger($9.89)! A 1/2lb burger topped with bacon and jack and cheddar cheese. But most of all it's got peanut butter on it! The menu says; "Don't be afraid!"
I'd say that you'll either immediately like or hate this burger, there's no middle ground. Though I'm not a peanut butter lover, I enjoyed the burger. The not overly sweet peanut bitter added a nice creamy richness to the burger, which was pretty darn good on it's own; seared on the outside, moist and tender in the interior. The peanut butter balanced out the saltiness of the bacon and cheddar cheese. The acid from the tomato helped cut through the richness.
The burger came with two sides and I chose fries:
The "natural style" fries, were "bleh", okay, but they got real soggy very quickly and needed alot of ketchup.
I also got the potato salad.
Red potatoes with a light coat of mayo, the salad had a huge amount of "pickle juice" that would have been off-putting on it's own, but in this case, the vinegar helped cleanse my palate of the peanut butter-cheese-bacon richness. I don't think I'd enjoy these as much with anything else. After eating all this I was stuffed silly!
I have always enjoyed the service at Brians', I also like the no-nonsense stuff. For instance we ordered coffee, and of course had ice water. And instead of having to flag someone down for refills they always leave a pot and a pitcher for our refills.
There are items on the menu at Brians' that I do not enjoy, but overall I consider Brians' to be a pretty good neighborhood diner, and the Missus loves those pancakes.
Brians' American Eatery
1451 Washington St
San Diego, CA 92103
Postscript: In case you're wondering why I ordered a Frankie Burger, it's because of our own little "Frankie Burger" – meet Frankie(burger….):
