Patric’s caters to discriminating breakfast, lunch crowd

Like the Cher or Sting of the culinary world, Patric goes by a one-word moniker. It’s the one under which he made a name for himself as a Naples caterer based on Davis Boulevard a few years back, and it’s the one he uses for his new venture, Patric’s Breakfast, Lunch & More.

He’s teamed up with The Cookie Jar, which accounts for a good part of the “& More.”

The casual and cozy café in Mission Square on Pine Ridge Road offers breakfast all day, every day, and lunch starting at 11 a.m. You can sit up at the counter and watch Patric and company whip up all manner of made-from-scratch fare that includes omelettes, cornbread (which accompanies all salads), fried green tomatoes, sandwiches and loads of tantalizing cookies and pies.

Cool avocado walls adorned with pictures of cafes and street scenes and a blackboard listing the daily baked goods all add to the homey, comforting nature of Patric’s.

Above: Chef/owner Patric makes almost everything from scratch, including this fresh-fromthe oven cornbread. Below: The classic Southern dish fried green tomatoes comes with horseradish cream and a sprinkling of chopped green onions. Yet another nice feature is that if you have a hankering for breakfast at noon but your dining companion fancies lunch, each of you can have what you want.

The breakfast menu features a burrito (with scrambled eggs, sausage, home fries, black beans, cheese, salsa and sour cream), bagel sandwiches, bacon Benedict, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, Briestuffed French toast and some interesting omelet fillings, including smoked salmon and jerk chicken. Yet another intriguing selection: the pot roast skillet, with home fries, pot roast, onions, eggs and cheese. Cholesterol levels be damned!

Should you feel torn between an omelette and biscuits and gravy, you can order the former with a half-order of the latter on the side.

I tried the jerk chicken omelette ($6.95), which turned out to be chock full of gently spiced chicken, tomatoes, peppers, onions and Jack cheese all incorporated into the eggs. The chicken flavored the whole concoction nicely. Home fries contained bits of onion and seasonings, all well browned. Rye toast on which I slathered honeyed butter served as a sweet counterbalance to all the spices in the omelette and potatoes.

My companion honed in on the lunch menu, which includes salads, sandwiches and a couple of pasta dishes.

His ahi tuna melt ($8.25) came open faced and loaded with cheese atop a fillet of fresh pink tuna. His personal preference would be a bit less cheese, but the tuna was still discernible beneath it. Flamingo cole slaw turned out to be a slightly sweet and tropically hued cabbage mix that had good flavor and added color to the plate. The dish was finished with a generous mound of something called “addictive fries” — crisp fries sprinkled with garlic powder and other seasonings. They, too, were good.

We split an order of fried green tomatoes ($4.50). It’s a dish I love and rarely find on local menus. It was nicely presented, the tomatoes sliced thin, coated in cornmeal and expertly fried to a golden brown then topped with horseradish cream. I’d have liked a more piquant cream — is there ever too much horseradish? — but the cream was well balanced and added zest to the mild tomatoes.

A cup of coffee was smooth and mellow but not weak, and my companion’s homemade lemonade was so good he had two glasses while I wished I’d ordered some, too.

We finished with generous portions of just-baked Gramma Cathy’s Dutch apple pie ($4.50) that, at Patric’s suggestion, came slathered in fresh whipped cream. We saw covetous glances directed our way from tables on either side of us and that envy was justified. The pie was delicious, with a tender, flaky crust, cinnamon-scented Granny Smith apples inside and a perfect crumb topping — and that load of slightly sweetened whipped cream, which could have constituted dessert all by itself.

Service was amiable if a little scattered, with our server appearing to be a bit overtaxed. Although we had to remind him to bring water, butter and jelly, he delivered our courses in a timely fashion, made sure we were happy with what we’d ordered and did a fine job recommending the apple pie for dessert.

It wasn’t until we were on our way out that I spied the cornbread cooling on a counter, fresh and fragrant from the oven. Clearly more research is called for here. 