Coffee Cay mixes scrambled eggs with sausage, fills a small flour tortilla, and tops it with American cheese, beans and rice, and salsa.
(Credit: MikeAnthony Moffa)
Cheap seats: Inside, Coffee Cay is very yellow that tropical yellow of fish, flowers and poolside bars. You've got tables outside, tables inside, and a mini coffeehouse set-up with a couple comfy chairs and a low table. Customers can get a password for free WiFi and if you don't have a laptop, there's a desktop (with printer) in the corner.
Staff is friendly folks. On one visit, I mentioned that I drive by the place in the morning and the owner suggested that next time, I could call ahead and they'd have breakfast ready for me on arrival.
Cheap Treats: The menu is mostly American with a few Brazilian bakery items -- plus smoothies, ice cream and phone cards, just to make sure you can't pin down the cuisine.
My favorite item was the breakfast taco ($1.49) which I ate a second time for lunch. The cook/cashier scrambles an egg with sausage in a plastic ring and then nukes it into a cooked disc. That goes into a small flour tortilla with American cheese, beans and rice, and salsa. I'd ask to borrow the big bottle of Tabasco from behind the counter.
You can add a small cappuccino for $1.75. In general, I think we all pay too much for espresso with milk, but this one was less of a rip-off than most. You can also add a small soda or coffee to lunch for fifty cents. A small bag of chips is only fifty cents more. Where else can you add a Pepsi and potato chips for $1?
Coffee Cay uses that microwave oven a lot. In fact, they have three, along with a Foreman-style grill and an industrial toaster. Misto Quente ($2.10) is Brazilian hot ham and cheese. The ingredients all look and taste like quality, but the execution is weak. The bread should be grilled or at least toasty. This one was barely warmed and I suspect the microwave had fired up again.
The chilidog ($2.25) suffered the same fate -- a meaty, flavorful dog that went a bit (just a bit) rubbery after nuking.
It took me three visits before I could try one of Coffee Cay's wraps. On visit one, they were out of the "big" tortillas. On the second attempt, the owner was at the store, buying more. On visit three, I bought the "jerky" chicken wrap ($4.50) to go. I'd love to tell you about it, but when I reached home, what I actually had was the "cheezy" beef wrap ($4.50). After all that waiting, it was my big disappointment. Pre-cooked hamburger meat is mixed with rice, American cheese and salsa and microwaved. The meat is dry and dull and I don't think even hot sauce would help.
For dessert, I looked through the six to eight flavors of store-made gelato and picked a small scoop of rum raisin ($2). A few small clumps of ice crystals aside, the flavor was good. Next time though, I would suggest the gelato maker wait and add the raisins at the end. The little fruits had been pulverized in the mixing process, leaving nothing but specks and stems.
Cheap Gas: I must mention that at dinnertime, Coffee Cay recently added $1 (!!!) draft beers, $1.50 domestic bottles and $2 imports. If I lived within walking distance, this could become a regular stop. But it's not so until the craving for a cheap breakfast taco hits, the quest for Cheap Eats continues.
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