Saturday morning, Whitworth, myself and my family were invited to a sneak peek/trial-run breakfast at a brand new (and hotly anticipated) restaurant in the Cathedral area, the Mercury Café and Grill (2936 13th Ave). As the pics attest, it’s a diner-style eatery with a nice retro-modern feel to it.
The Mercury will be open for business for reals tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.
The menu is pretty much what you’d expect: eggs, toast, cinnamon buns, burgers. Pretty straight forward. Might pass unnoticed except that the Cathedral neighbourhood has been screaming out for a place like this ever since the Quality Tea Room closed its doors. At one point, there was even a Facebook group to show support for a new breakfast joint in the area.
More chatter and an interior pic after the jump….
Looks like hash browns will be one of the Mercury’s specialties as they’ve five different styles on offer. Also, I’m told the person behind their baked goods is the same baker who used to work for the Quality Tea Room. I moved to Regina long after that institution shut down but I hear the Tea Room’s pies were pretty special.
In short, it looks like the Mercury will be a welcome addition to Cathedral, a neighbourhood already well equipped with great places to eat.
Okay, so now you’re thinking, “Hey, wait a second, Dechene. Back on April Fool’s Day, weren’t you mocking advertorials? This reads awfully advertorialish.”
Well, yes, I was. And maybe this does. But, I have to confess a certain weakness for diners in general and breakfast joints in particular. Whenever I move, the local greasy spoon is one of the first things I seek out. Mornings with eggs, bacon and four or five cups of drip coffee are just about perfect in my books. I’m damn happy to have somewhere I can get all that just a short walk from my front door. Don’t know what it says about me exactly, but the opening of a new diner in the neighbourhood is a pretty big event in my life.
On top of that — and this is a tip — if a local business invites prairie dog folk out to an event and we have a good time (which we did at the Mercury) then we’ll do our best write that up. Gratis.
Anyway, thanks to everyone at the Mercury Café for a great breakfast.
