Lenny's - Best Breakfast in Florida

So I am catching up a lot of posts which I have been sitting on for a while – hence the late post from earlier this year (actually May). My memory for all things food at times is stupid as my colleague and my wife can both tell you – I can’t remember their names at times but the meals I have had over the last few years – which aren’t down on paper yet are pretty phenomenal. I guess my stomach is like a second brain for me.

Over 10 years ago, Pam and I started going to Clearwater beach for the American Conference Baseball tournament each may. She went the first year, if I remember right – again selective memory, and found this hidden dive. Now we have found some interesting restaurants on Service Roads throughout this country and this wouldn’t be the first or the last (I will cover another Clearwater/St. Pete favorite, Bascom's in another post - on Clearwater's equivalent of Airline HWY, lol). We also have a tendency to enjoy a good breakfast – I used to hate breakfast as a kid and reluctantly eat the meal during the work week, but when we are on vacation, the bigger the better.

When you first walk into Lenny’s, you expect to see a fat guy in a white wife beater and a white sailor's cap screaming at Flo and Alice. Its that kind of place. Instead you see second generation owner, Danny, wearing a wild striped button down shirt at the cash drawer or his wife (I am assuming, unusual to me, I have never introduced myself). They great you like old friends and take your name – the only time they aren’t on a wait is early in the week or morning, or late afternoon (for them – 2 pm, they close at 3).

You have a nice wall with a mural in front of you with caricatures of the kitchen staff and a comment about being in the weeds (restaurant folks will get it). To the left of the walled in kitchen, is the singles bar which you can pull up to if you are eating by yourself or don’t want to wait on a table and there’s room. The dinning room itself is two part and contains probably less than about 35 tables. If you are a big top prepare to wait as there is only room for one maybe two in the back portion of the dining room.

As you look deeper you see all the tops of the crown molding (really no) covered in their T-shirts each with a tacky slogan – what do you expect. In addition under that are pictures of every renowned Philly who ever spent time in the little diner, all signed, and some not so renowned players and other celebrities.

The dive is just a half mile from the Phillies Spring Training site and the home of the Clearwater Thrashers (Phillies Minor Team). As I have learned at times Lenny, Danny and family open up after three for their friends from the land of the Liberty Bell for private dinners during spring training and at times provide food for the minor league guys.

On our last visit, we went twice for breakfast. I was feeling adventuresome and strayed from my usual meat lovers omelet with home fries to get just a plain jane fromage a trois omelet with link sausage with silver dollar pancakes. Pam went with one of her old standbys – SOS, yep that SOS. You can get a single or a double order, she chose double. Her other standby is typically the Redneck Benedict, two biscuits with two sausage patties, covered with poached eggs and then the kicker – sausage gravy. Either one is a winner, but both the RB and SOS leave you full and happy but take 6 months off your life.

While you wait, the waitresses, most of who have been there 10+ years, keep you full of your beverage of choice and bring you a Danish basket. Yeah you aren’t getting enough food, so they bring you a Danish basket. It has cinnamon pinwheel things, a cheesecake cinnamon Danish, a strawberry thing (sorry I never eat it, got fruit, lol) and other small hors d'oeuvres to help you wait (usually no more than 10 minutes – oh and if you want to save room, they give you a nice bag to pack up your catch with so you can eat them the next day or afternoon or whenever.

When the food gets to your table, your jaw drops as your mouth waters. The SOS, you navy folks know the real name, is 4 pieces of toast of your choice, Pam had sourdough today, smothered in white cream chipped beef gravy. My small 3 egg omelet, had more cheddar, provolone and Swiss spilling out of it and loaded with more linked sausage than I had on my

plate as a side order. The gravy for the SOS is nice and creamy, chunked with a generous portion of the chipped beef (does anyone really know what this is??). The silver dollar pancakes were $5 dollar silver dollars because the old Truman dollars were about 1/10 the size of these, so the US must have minted a much larger $5 coin at some point that I wasn’t aware of.

The syrup is just generic maple syrup, but really do you care at this point. The meal is definitely something which will keep you full throughout the day and possibly until your next visit.

On our final visit for the week, Pam and I went out again on limbs. Pam got the portobello benedict. Two English muffins covered in large tasty portobello mushrooms, covered in super runny poached eggs and the traditional hollandaise. I went with the pancakes, but I also wanted to try his latkes – traditional potato pancakes that come with either sour cream (a whole vat of it) or apple sauce or both! Neither disappointed either of us and again more food than one can legally eat and not die.

Don’t get me wrong their breakfast is incredible but on various other visits we have made it for lunch. Their lunch menu features of course a Philly cheesesteak, the best that far south of Philly, pot roast is typically a special, you can still get the SOS if there is any left from breakfast. They make a mean Reuben and other Jewish delicatessen favorites. You are probably saying, well Jim that can’t be all you get – and you are right. Lunch comes served with your choice of a fabulous table relishes – two for each diner. You can chose from beets, macaroni salad, pickles, marinated cucumbers, tomatoes and coleslaw.

The service is what you expect from a diner. It is very good, but of course not 5*, but these women work hard and are worth the 20% tip every time. The atmosphere is phenomenal and worthy of repeat visits with so many items on the menu. With it being within 15 minutes of the beach, many people go multiple times like we do and of course they have their share of regulars. As you pay, you get a small reminder of your visit, either Dan or his spouse, secretively place a little sticker of the Lenny Caricature on the back of your CC to remind you every time you use your CC in the future and to spur interesting conversation when the next person who takes it from you checks the back.