In Portland, the "power breakfast" is a thing, a meal in which the politicos and the powerful of the Oregon city that gave us both the modern hipster stereotype and the "The Coolest" ice chest with a built-in blender and iPhone charger gather to discuss the important matters of the day. If the power breakfast were a thing in Houston, we can imagine it taking place in the light-filled, mid-century-inspired dining room at Weights + Measures—once the new restaurant-cum-bakery-cum-bar gets its footing, that is.

Weights + Measures
2808 Caroline St.
713-654-1970
weights-measures.com

For now, indulge in Mike Sammons and Ian Rosenberg's latest project while it's still young and while you can still get a seat at breakfast (and a parking spot, thanks to a blissfully large gravel lot out front). The two men behind 13 Celsius and Mongoose versus Cobra—a wine bar and a beer bar, respectively—have partnered with beloved baker Heath Wendell of Slow Dough Bread Co. for this ambitious undertaking, which functions as a home base for Wendell's bakery as well as a restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner seven days a week under co-owner and executive chef Richard Kaplan.

At breakfast, skip the appetizer of toast—as tempting as it may be, you can purchase nearly an entire loaf of Wendell's bread at the storefront bakery portion of Weights + Measures for what you'd pay for an odd little Jenga stack of toast that steams itself into a soggy frown by the time it's delivered to your table—and check out the toast-based mains instead. Here you'll find a diverse array of creations from brioche toast topped with Nutella, bananas, peanut butter, and fried eggs or the comparatively modest ciabatta toast topped with avocado, harissa, bacon, and still more fried eggs.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the list is the mushroom toast, owing to its complexity of flavors: the sour-sweet pumpernickel at the base, its rye flour darkened with tangy molasses; the oozy, mushroom-y funk of melted Brie together with the forest floor flavor of the mushrooms themselves; the sugary caramelized onions tempered in their sweetness with a gentle allium bite; and finally the buttery creaminess of two poached eggs that wait on top of the whole affair for you to puncture their delicate white skins and bring the whole thing together.

This isn't your basic breakfast; it demands a little more attention and consideration than just a stack of pancakes—and if that doesn't wake you up in the morning, you can always grab a coffee and a cake donut on your way out.

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