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DINING REVIEW

A shining example

Jimmy’s Café is another star on the Interstate 25 breakfast corridor

Published

JIMMY’S CAFÉ

3 stars

LOCATION: 7007 Jefferson St. NE, 505-341-2546,

HOURS: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily

NO ALCOHOL

Call it the Camino de Café. The Huevos Way. Or maybe the Tortilla Trail.

It’s the one-mile stretch on the west side of the Interstate 25 corridor that holds three longstanding breakfast-and-lunch spots noted for their big menus, friendly servers and devoted clientele.

At the southern end is Vic’s Daily Café, opened in 1998 and famous for its chicken-fried steak/huevos rancheros mashup known as the Vaqueros. The northern end is marked by Milly’s Café, launched in 1993 and known for its mix of diner standards and Greek specialties. In the middle sits Jimmy’s Café, whose 23 years in business make it the youngster of the group.

I’ve been to Vic’s and Milly’s but not Jimmy’s, and so, in the interest of completism, I ventured there a couple of times recently to sample the goods.

Named after owner Steve Reynolds’ son, Jimmy’s occupies the corner of a strip mall on the west side of Jefferson Street a short distance north of Osuna Boulevard NE.

The spacious interior is divided into three dining rooms. The front room might be the most riotously decorated dining space in the city. Awards, artwork and photographs of celebrities cover almost every square inch of wall space. Pass the time by identifying all the famous Jimmys in the photos.

Jimmy’s opens at 7 every morning. At 8:30 a.m. on a recent weekday, the scene was pretty drowsy. The front dining room was about half full; the other two, largely empty. Service was brisk and friendly, and the food came out quickly.

The breakfast menu is mostly savory stuff, with a few sweets mixed in. Prices are reasonable, with nothing over $15 and many items under $10. Particularly appealing is the smaller-portion option on dishes like the Huevos Rancheros and Pancakes.

I kicked off my breakfast with Coffee ($3.29) and a generous pour of Orange Juice ($3.19). The coffee was good and strong, the OJ tasted fresh-squeezed. The server filled my coffee cup and left the pot on the table, a practice I am a big fan of. It beats having to flag someone down to get a refill.

I ordered one item from the savory side, one from the sweet. The savory choice was Steve’s Breakfast, presumably named for the owner. It’s a variation of huevos rancheros with hash browns subbing in for beans. The small order ($8.89) arrived with an over-easy egg poised on top of a spread of hash browns covered in Christmas-style chile sauce and melted cheese with a plate of thin flour tortillas on the side. It’s good, hearty fare, the egg expelling its runny yolk into the spicy, smoky chile and the hash browns staying crisp under it all.

For the sweet side, I chose a short stack of Banana Pecan Pancakes ($8.25). I find pancakes at restaurants difficult to finish, so I appreciated having a short stack option. The two pancakes were topped with sliced bananas and a pile of pecans and served with a cup of syrup on the side. Together, the components provided a mix of sweet, nutty and earthy with some textural contrast. The pancakes held up well to the syrup. Tasty, and a great value.

In contrast to the rather sleepy breakfast scene, the weekday lunch hour at Jimmy’s a few days later buzzed. All three dining rooms were full with a mix of workers and retirees. I was seated in the corner dining room that doubles as a meeting space, as evidenced by the pulldown screen hanging from one wall.

My friend and I had been chatting and perusing the menu for a few minutes when the server came over and warned us that a party of 12 had just arrived, so we should get our order in right away. We scrambled to pick dishes from the multipage lunch menu that has prices similar to those at breakfast.

The nine salads are available in small and large sizes and run from $4.59 for a small Side Salad to heftier versions topped with steak, chicken or tuna salad for just a tick under $13. I chose the small Spicy Chicken Caesar ($10.59). Strips of cold white-meat chicken, slightly reddened and pepper-flecked, were spread over a bed of romaine lettuce tossed with Caesar dressing. Shredded Parmesan and garlic croutons finished the plate. The chicken paired well with the creamy, tangy dressing, but it was not spicy at all.

My friend ordered the Cheeseburger ($10.99) from a selection of six Angus burgers costing between $10.29-$14.19. The thick-pattied burger topped with melted American cheese was cooked far past the requested medium, and the pale yellow fries were unremarkable.

The copious selection of sandwiches that takes up a full page of the menu is divided into Deli and Specialty categories. All the classics are here: French Dip, Philly Cheesesteak. Tuna Melt. The Deli choices are available in half and full size on a choice of bread and wraps and cost between $9 and $12.50. Gluten-free buns will set you back an extra 79 cents.

I tried the Albuquerque Turkey, one of the deli selections, as part of a soup-and-half-sandwich combo ($9.89). The components — thin-sliced turkey, fresh avocado, snappy chile and chipotle mayo — were good, but the bottom piece of white bread was soggy. It was accompanied by a competent cup of green chile stew crowded with tender pork.

If the white bread wilted under the fillings of the Albuquerque Turkey, the thick rye bread that underpinned the Jimmy’s Reuben ($12.39), one of the specialty sandwiches, held up just fine. Inside, slices of tender, fatty corned beef, sauerkraut and Swiss cheese picked up a sweet and sour charge from the cup of dressing on the side. A solid interpretation of a classic, although I thought that the sour, tangy ’kraut was somewhat muted. I preferred the sweet potato fries that accompanied the Reuben to the regular ones that came with the burger.

Dessert arrived in the form of a Cinnabon cinnamon roll ($4.70) with a knife plunged into the middle of it. Warm, gooey, buttery and enough for two to share, it was a good finish to the meal.

With my two meals at Jimmy’s, I have completed all three stops on the Camino de Café. Jimmy’s offers some good value, especially in its breakfast menu, and its front dining room is a wonder to behold. I thought lunch was more uneven, though I suspect most of the crowd in there would disagree.