Cheap Eats - Breakfast of champions

Pastries A-Go-Go pleases with homey pastries and brunch

Some folks toss and turn at night because of a guilty conscience, others from work or relationship-related anxiety. I’m losing winks over Pastries A-Go-Go’s baked goodies and sandwiches. I’ve thought of little else since my first visit two weeks ago. My boyfriend swears that in the middle of the night, I lift my head off a drool-soaked pillow, moan “buttercream cake ...” and then fall back asleep whimpering.

Even though this popular cafe is utterly unassuming, it’s also comfortable. A retro-styled logo dominates the large picture window and a grotty fish tank stands near the door, but beyond that, there’s practically no decoration. Tables are small and grouped elbow-to-elbow. The display case seems a bit forlorn, not due to a lack of variety but to pillaging, butter-starved locals who know to get there early and buy in bulk. Service is prompt and friendly without being chatty, and details, such as bottles of Siracha on the tables, are evidence that Pastries-A-Go-Go is all about scrumptious food.

Eggs Benediction: Once you make Hollandaise part of a meal, you might as well go full throttle and order the eggs Benedict ($6.50) on a split croissant. Although the combination may sound overwhelmingly rich, it’s surprisingly not so. The perfectly poached eggs’ runny yolks catch every last flaky crumb, and the thick slice of ham has been griddled on a blackened skillet, adding a smokiness that gives the decadent dish a bit of depth. Accompanying home fries are crusty and creamy.

Bacon, love and tomato: It’s hard to look an enormous, fluffy biscuit in the eye and say no, especially when it’s stuffed with homemade sausage, egg and cheese ($3.30). Powdery, buttery, airy and rapturously delicious, the biscuits get eaten up early on weekends, and with good reason. You’d be hard-pressed to find better. The BLT ($4.95) deserves a cult following. Made just the way I like it — with almost too much mayonnaise — the applewood-smoked bacon is thick-cut and practically sizzling between the white bread. Slices of tomato and frills of lettuce are so fresh and cold they’re almost icy. When my waitress serves my sandwich, then checks up on me three minutes later, she gasps at my already cleaned plate.

Buttercream dream: If you grew up, as I did, with a mom who considered leftover birthday cake a perfectly good breakfast, Pastries A-Go-Go will win a permanent space in your heart. The pecan bar ($3) is pure bliss, as light as it is obscenely rich, with a crumbly short crust and toasty nuts. I nearly swallow it whole. I lick every last bit caramel off my fingers, then lick the wax paper the bar was wrapped in. And then I take two more home. Of all Pastries A-Go-Go’s homey, old-fashioned baked goods, however, it’s the simple buttercream cake ($6) that haunts and taunts me. A diet breaker if there ever were one, this 3-inch cake is a love song to butter at full volume. The frosting packs a whippy dairy wallop while melting on the tongue, and the yellow cake beneath is baked sunlight, golden as pirate treasure and softer than meringue. It’s love at first bite.??