Diner Review: The Boardwalk Cafe (Webster)

Sooooo... as it has been discussed the St. Louis Diner Review has lost it’s way. No diners have been reviewed. No hash browns have had their measure taken. Instead what have you been reading? Drivel... drivel at best when compared to the majesty that is breakfast, the pantheon that is the diner. We have lost to friends over the last year, specifically After down in the Grove (how sad is it that “the Grove has actually caught on as the name of that destitute area where Manchester dumps into Vandeventer which has been known primarily for it’s gay and lesbian bars) and The Buttery on South Grand. They will be missed.

In an effort to make amends The Diner Review is staying close to home. I have recently visited The Boardwalk Cafe at 600 East Lockwood right next to the Starbucks and across from the triangle park which separates it from Weber’s Front Row. It is a great little place. It is a great location and there is literally no other tolerable place to get a a breakfast in Webster (and don’t you dare mention “First Watch” to me. It is an anathema) There is very little atmosphere but is a comfortable place. Outside dining when weather cooperates. It is locally owned and run by a family of some ethnicity. They seem extremely pleasant and eager to please. They have several somewhat rickety booths trailing back shot gun style along the side of the kitchen/grill area. Languages are being spoken which I cannot decipher. This is somehow comforting. They do not open till 7 which is an hour too late but you get the feeling that the people who work there might have been partying until they came over to open the place up.

They do all the standards (for me) and they do good bacon, toast, sausage, gravy. I would argue they try and do too much in that they offer 12 types of omelets and 9 “skillets”. “Skillets” are of course an abomination. They are an amalgamation of eggs, home fries and... whatever other crap anyone wants to throw in there. They state that they have the best pancakes and french toast in town and they do coyly offer the much ballyhooed “Pigs In A Blanket”. They also have full lunch menu but I will never be there then. All and all this diner says 7.5 Slingers on 10 scale. There, that wasn’t so hard. Was it?