Grump's Cafe

Coming to Grump's is like taking a vacation before work, starting with the brightly colored picnic tables outside and continuing with the surfboards, Corona beer paraphernalia and beer-bar signs. (By the way, margaritas and Bloody Marys are available on the breakfast menu, even on weekdays, just in case you decide to really make this a vacation.)

Grump's takes its coffee seriously. Its house blend and the popular Dancing Goat blend come from Washington state's Batdorf & Bronson roastery, and other coffees are from Anne Arundel County's Ceremony Coffee Roasters and Chesapeake Bay Roasting Co. The food is the type you might expect at brunch -- Eggs Bay Ridge (jumbo lump crab meat, poached eggs, tomatoes and hollandaise atop two English muffin halves), the Smokey Chipotle Omelet (roast chicken, melted cheddar, sauteed peppers and onions, house pepper sauce), the Chicken Vicki Fried Steak (country-fried steak smothered in sausage gravy, and two eggs and grits). But if you don't want to linger, you can spend less than $5 for a short stack of buckwheat pancakes with bacon or sausage or the Breakfast Club sandwich, essentially a BLT on toast with cheddar and two fried eggs. Both are easy to eat on the picnic tables outside when the weather is fine.

Menu sampler: Eggs Bay Ridge, $10.99; Smokey Chipotle Omelet, $9.99; biscuits and sausage gravy with home fries, $5.59.

-- Fritz Hahn (April 10, 2012)