What do you do when you want a great breakfast downtown but don't want to sweat your ass off waiting outside for a table at Matt's? Well, when presented with this dilemma today, I went with some coworkers to First Watch.
We lucked out on parking since my boss was willing to wait on the street for a while while some dude backed out of a prime metered spot in front of the door. Parking can be a bit sketchy mid-day so be warned.
Anywho, First Watch offers typical breakfast fare. I wanted eggs, breakfast potatoes, and pancakes, the combination of which is not available on the menu, so I ordered a la carte. The breakfast potatoes had the distinctive "been in a steam table for a while" dryness to them (it was 1:30 in the afternoon) and were devoid of any seasoning. My eggs were fine, although I was very disappointed in the private-label "First Watch" hot sauce on the table....it was flavorless and just gross.
The pancakes were decent--the batter is definitely homemade, although they didn't give me enough butter for 2 cakes, and our server didn't really check with us so I never had a chance to order a second pat of butter. Oh well. I ended up soaking the pancakes in syrup so they wouldn't be so dry.
To sum it up: We probably should have just sweated it out and gone to Matt's. Mediocre food, mediocre service. One big meh.