The Daymaker Cafe

THE DAYMAKER CAFE
7225 W. North Ave.

Wauwatosa, WI
(414) 774-1200

Tucked into an East Towne Tosa neighborhood (between a laundramat and a popcorn shop) the Daymaker Cafe looks like the cafe time forgot. Painted lime green and lemon yellow the cafe has crown moldings, aluminum blade ceiling fans, Formica counters with glass salt and pepper shakers and leather upholstered bar stools and booth benches. Everything is old-school but the food - which is hearty with new age twists and tweaks.

I had the misfortune of discovering the Daymaker Cafe at the same time most of Milwaukee did. The owner and staff were wholly unprepared for the deluge of business. Service was awful, the customers surly and the understaffed staff harried. On my first visit, it took me twenty minutes to find a seat, forty minutes to place my order and an hour and a half to get served. My one bit of good fortune: I literally got my pancake order in right before they ran out of both pancake mix and the flour to make pancake mix. "86 the pancakes!" the owner/cook called out. It was 9:50 am in the morning.

But let me tell you, the pancakes were well worth the wait. It quickly became apparent why service was so slow - the young chef/owner would sell no pancake before its time. Everything else - the scrambled eggs, the toast, the bacon, the sausage, the coffee was ordinary - but each and every flapjack was a small jewel of culinary perfection.

The Blueberry pancakes were wonderful: light, fluffy and bursting with blueberry flavor. It is hard to describe how great they are. I have never, ever had a better blueberry pancake. The Buttermilk pancakes are equally wonderful - hands down the best buttermilk pancakes I have ever eaten. But, in my humble opinion, the star of the Daymaker breakfast pancake menu is the Cyclops, a huge plate-sized pancake with sausage pieces baked right inside the pancake with a marvelous "poached" egg in the middle. Great slappy molassy that was some good eating.

I would never have ventured there but on my last visit my dining companion ordered an egg-white omelette stuffed with asparagus, zucchini, herbed chicken and some other stuff and, I must admit, it was good.

Oh yeah - things have calmed down nicely since the Daymaker was the cafe non-grata and it is once again safe to sample the best pancakes in Milwaukee.

I love the pancakes so much I have yet to try the sandwich menu (but I have heard good things).

Pancakes:

So good you'll slap yo' mama!

Everything else:
Aiight!