Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

The Trails Eatery may fuel your new year habits, whatever they are

Peanut butter, crab cakes, carne asada, and eggs how you like ‘em

"Elvis Cakes": pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, and scoops of peanut butter
"Elvis Cakes": pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, and scoops of peanut butter

Mission Trails is the sort of place that gets a lot of January action, largely from people who resolve to spend more time outdoors and exercising in the new year. I might have fallen into that category too, had successive rainstorms not arrived to let me off the hook. However, hike or no hike, foul weather didn’t dampen any appetites, so we decided to follow through on plans to brunch in the area.

Place

Trails Eatery

7389 Jackson Drive, San Carlos, CA

That area, of course, being San Carlos, home to the aptly named breakfast and lunch diner The Trails Eatery, located only a few blocks from the trailhead to Cowles Mountain.

Sponsored
Sponsored

If you don’t live in San Carlos, you’re probably here for the regional park too, and in that regard, Trails Eatery makes a handy pre- or post-hike destination. Its mostly standard-fare menu offers just enough quirky departures to make things interesting, if you like, as well as all the usual egg and breakfast meat staples, if you don’t.

"Bene asada": eggs Benedict with carne asada made by Valley Farm Market

Stick to those, and you can still find a filling bargain, even as restaurant prices rise in response to inflation and increasing minimum wage. You can still get a two-eggs breakfast, or a breakfast sandwich made on croissant or sourdough toast, for under ten bucks. Indulge your sweet tooth on the likes of waffles or French toast, and it’s $10-12ish. Go for an omelet or more filling plate such as corned beef hash, and you’re into the fifteen-dollar range, which is about the breakfast rate we can expect from 2023.

At the (slightly) upper end, you’ll find Trails Eatery’s top-shelf eggs benedicts priced around $18, because that’s when you’ll find the restaurant’s premium ingredients, including house-made crab cakes smothered by the eatery’s signature chipotle hollandaise. The same is employed on the so-called Bene Asada, wherein a spicier benedict is constructed with the help of the Imperial Valley carne asada, made by Valley Farm Market, down in Spring Valley. As a regular consumer of the stuff, I pass on the surprise opportunity to make it part of my first restaurant meal of the new year.

Breakfast sandwich on sourdough toast, with ham and scrambled eggs

I sure could have used that hike though. The benedict would have been filling enough if several of our group hadn’t split the $10.99 Elvis Cakes: a pair of pancakes stuffed with banana slices and chocolate chips, and topped with generous scoops of creamy peanut butter. Apparently, any number of filling foods involving peanut butter and banana may be attributed to Elvis Presley, whether or not it includes bacon (we did add a side of bacon, to be genuine about it).

And just like that, any hope this would be a New Year’s Resolution sort of brunch outing have been thoroughly dashed. But that’s fine. We’re still holding out hope for more exercise once sunny weather returns to Southern California, and if anything, I’d like this year to feature more chocolate and peanut butter, not less.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The Art Of Dr. Seuss, Boarded: A New Pirate Adventure, Wild Horses Festival

Events December 26-December 30, 2024
Next Article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
"Elvis Cakes": pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, and scoops of peanut butter
"Elvis Cakes": pancakes with bananas, chocolate chips, and scoops of peanut butter

Mission Trails is the sort of place that gets a lot of January action, largely from people who resolve to spend more time outdoors and exercising in the new year. I might have fallen into that category too, had successive rainstorms not arrived to let me off the hook. However, hike or no hike, foul weather didn’t dampen any appetites, so we decided to follow through on plans to brunch in the area.

Place

Trails Eatery

7389 Jackson Drive, San Carlos, CA

That area, of course, being San Carlos, home to the aptly named breakfast and lunch diner The Trails Eatery, located only a few blocks from the trailhead to Cowles Mountain.

Sponsored
Sponsored

If you don’t live in San Carlos, you’re probably here for the regional park too, and in that regard, Trails Eatery makes a handy pre- or post-hike destination. Its mostly standard-fare menu offers just enough quirky departures to make things interesting, if you like, as well as all the usual egg and breakfast meat staples, if you don’t.

"Bene asada": eggs Benedict with carne asada made by Valley Farm Market

Stick to those, and you can still find a filling bargain, even as restaurant prices rise in response to inflation and increasing minimum wage. You can still get a two-eggs breakfast, or a breakfast sandwich made on croissant or sourdough toast, for under ten bucks. Indulge your sweet tooth on the likes of waffles or French toast, and it’s $10-12ish. Go for an omelet or more filling plate such as corned beef hash, and you’re into the fifteen-dollar range, which is about the breakfast rate we can expect from 2023.

At the (slightly) upper end, you’ll find Trails Eatery’s top-shelf eggs benedicts priced around $18, because that’s when you’ll find the restaurant’s premium ingredients, including house-made crab cakes smothered by the eatery’s signature chipotle hollandaise. The same is employed on the so-called Bene Asada, wherein a spicier benedict is constructed with the help of the Imperial Valley carne asada, made by Valley Farm Market, down in Spring Valley. As a regular consumer of the stuff, I pass on the surprise opportunity to make it part of my first restaurant meal of the new year.

Breakfast sandwich on sourdough toast, with ham and scrambled eggs

I sure could have used that hike though. The benedict would have been filling enough if several of our group hadn’t split the $10.99 Elvis Cakes: a pair of pancakes stuffed with banana slices and chocolate chips, and topped with generous scoops of creamy peanut butter. Apparently, any number of filling foods involving peanut butter and banana may be attributed to Elvis Presley, whether or not it includes bacon (we did add a side of bacon, to be genuine about it).

And just like that, any hope this would be a New Year’s Resolution sort of brunch outing have been thoroughly dashed. But that’s fine. We’re still holding out hope for more exercise once sunny weather returns to Southern California, and if anything, I’d like this year to feature more chocolate and peanut butter, not less.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Houston ex-mayor donates to Toni Atkins governor fund

LGBT fights in common
Next Article

Bringing Order to the Christmas Chaos

There is a sense of grandeur in Messiah that period performance mavens miss.
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader