Cheap eats
Start your day at Ghini's French Caffe
From "Cheap eats" section of Tucson Citizen
By Kathleen Allen, Assistant Features Editor, Tucson Citizen

My father always said breakfast was the best meal of the day. He must have had Ghini's French Caffe in mind. It would be tough to find a breakfast much better than those served in this small eatery in a strip mall at 1803 E. Prince Road.

This isn't your typical ham-and-eggs affair, though it does offer that on the menu. But Ghini's offers traditional breakfasts with a heavy French accent, too. Meanwhile, it has a decidedly American feel. The walls of the one-room cafe are loaded with kitschy Coca-Cola signs dating back to the early part of the century.

A cheese grater, spoons and other kitchen props fill the space the Coke signs miss. Brightly flowered cloth covers the tables, and each table sports a silk sunflower - Ghini's logo of sorts - stuck into, of course a Coke bottle. Coke is served here, the waitress assured us. So is breakfast that will knock your taste buds straight to the French countryside.

The Marseillaise omelette ($4.95) - made with three eggs, as all omelettes here are - featured anchovies, fresh tomatoes and garlic. Mmmmm. The large round omelette was fluffy and light. There were enough of the soft, salty anchovies to give a bite to the dish, but not so many as to be called overkill.

The Provencale omelette ($4.95) was garlicky and boasted fresh onions, tomatoes and plenty of thyme. The fragrant and minty thyme gave a wonderful twist to the eggs and underscored the glory of fresh herbs.

The eggs came with crispy hash browns that were just as fresh as everything else. Thankfully, the helpings were generous enough to feed our voracious Irish appetites for the spuds.

Each breakfast comes with a choice of breads - all made fresh at the scrumptious Le Baguette bakery next door. The lightly toasted French bread was crusty and yummy. The sourdough was more subtle than I prefer, but it was still wonderfully chewy bread.

Given the quality of the meal, one would expect the coffee to be unusually good. Actually, it was just your basic cup of coffee. No real complaints, but not rich enough to make one sigh deeply with caffeine-induced satisfaction.

Ghini's offers lunches, too. The soups, which change regularly, have been fresh and tasty every time I tried them. The vegetable soup ($2.25 for a cup), if it's offered, should definitely be sampled. The fresh vegetables weren't overcooked, and the beefy broth was seasoned to perfection.

Of course, there is a down side to Ghini's: It's closed Sunday and Monday. And it's only open for breakfast and lunch. We can only hope that Sunday breakfasts, and maybe even dinners, might be on the menu someday.

Ghini's (326-9095) is open from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Each week, a Tucson Citizen "Cheap Eats" reporter visits and writes about a restaurant where one person can eat for about $8.