Critic's Review
It's that time of year; a very small window of time, where eating breakfast outside is plausible. It was 69 degrees at 9am. Someone just listed a restaurant with exactly this description for sale, so it gave me the idea to head out to Weston for some breakfast.
The best time to drive around here is from 9:30 to 11:30am; there's usually little traffic before lunch. Of course you can't go south from downtown Fort Lauderdale without hitting a draw bridge.
A waste of 10 minutes. I hope we're charging these boats like $500 ever time they have to raise a bridge for them.
Once I got over the bridge it was clear sailing down 595; hardly any traffic at all. I drove down main street; fat chance getting a spot here. I noticed a walkway to the rear, and I found a big free lot in the back.
I scored a spot in the first row, and headed for the archway.
The place kind of reminds me of Mary Brickell Village. A little fake village thats a couple of blocks square.
There's a door that looks like nothing in the front; the restaurant kind of wraps around a couple of other shops and then had a patio on the corner. The hostess is just inside the front door.
Inside there's a bar that isn't open at breakfast time.
Also a dining room with no people in it. It seems that only the outside and another few tables in the front are available for breakfast.
On a nice day, I wanted to sit outside. They have an odd shaped patio which gets a lot of sun in the morning.
They only have a couple of umbrellas to block the sun; my table was in direct sunlight. I sat with my back to the sun and ordered some coffee while I pondered the menu.
I ordered the All American Breakfast; 2 over easy, sausage, potatoes and french toast (instead of toast). Seemed like enough food.
I had a nice view of the sleepy town. It's kind of an interesting place. Plenty of cars; all of the lots were full, but no people. Hardly anyone walking around.
There have a bell tower with a chime that tried to play music; it's actually pretty annoying. Almost as annoying as the 11 chimes at 11am. Bell Towers aren't as charming as they once were.
Sitting in the sun isn't all that pleasant. They don't have enough umbrellas for all of the tables and they were too big to commandeer one and set up up behind me. You also can't see your phone in bright sunlight. No wifi, a poor signal. Not as pleasant as I'd hoped. The coffee was decent, at least.
My food came out in 11 minutes.
My first impression was "Good grief, another breakfast place that doesn't know how to make an over-easy egg". There was also no reasonable way to eat the french toast without a side plate. Why pile stuff on a plate so that it can't be eaten?
The potatoes were modern chef-y; they looked nice but they failed in their mission to taste good. They were under seasoned, under cooked and I'm not sure what they were cooked in but they had a strange flavor. Not butter and olive oil, that's for sure.
My server had bad timing all around; he asked if I wanted more coffee before I'd taken the first 2 sips; then when my cup was empty he was no-where to be found. This is also one of these restaurants where servers have tunnelvision; another server came out with a coffee pot and filled the cups at the table next to me but saw no reason to offer me any. This is what's wrong with the tipping model; servers work for themselves and not for the restaurant.
Once I polished off the miniature eggs, I could try the french toast.
Thick cut bread is the latest thing, but this bread wasn't soaked long enough as the center was more like bread than custard.
I would have rather had some toast than this. Nice idea though.
By 11:30 it was 80 degrees, and the sun was still beating down on me; it was time to go. I finally did get a refill on the coffee, and my check.
And no trip to 595 is complete without hitting another draw bridge on the way home.
Conclusion
Weston is an odd town with its fake waterways and makeshift villages. Primetime is your standard South Florida restaurant; with a standard menu where just about everything is cooked wrong. This place is owned by Chris Bradley and Robert Hock, who used to own the Metro Cafe in the Riverfront; their company name was Sun Prime back then and Sun Prime Weston now, so they like "Prime" for some reason.
The outside experience was ruined by the bright hot sun; this is a nice space after sundown, but unless it's cloudy make sure you're sitting in shade.