Good breakfast restaurants are few and far between.  One of Tacoma’s crown jewels is Alfred’s Cafe ( https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alfreds-Cafe/113341428699600 ).  Located  near the Tacoma Dome (402 Puyallup Avenue, Tacoma, WA  98421, to be precise), this diner has been serving great breakfasts for years.  They serve lunch and dinner and cocktails and the like (people rave about the monte cristo), but I’ve only been there for breakfast.  They have great omelets and they do a nice job with the hash browns.  Their pancakes are definitely worth eating.  They also make a good sausage gravy, but they do a chorizo gravy that is genius– a nice kickstarter for those mornings where you’re recovering from some bad decisions the night before (at least I’ve heard that is the case).  And speaking of hangover cures, one place they shine is their eggs benedict.  My favorite origin story for eggs benedict comes from a wealthy New York stock broker and flamboyant man-about-town named Lemuel Benedict.  He generally horrified his aristocratic family (he had a raccoon skin coat and a cane that had a liquor flask build-in – which were rather the attention getters) with his antics and frequent appearances in gossip columns.  One morning, recovering from a night on the town, he breakfasted at the Waldorf, and thought toast with bacon and a poached egg covered by hollandaise sauce would be a cure to what ailed him.  Oscar of the Waldorf (a Swiss immigrant, maître d’hôtel of myth and legend, and later creator of the Waldorf salad and thousand island salad dressing ) gave the recipe a try, liked it, put it on the menu with a name to honor the originator.  Or so the legend goes.  Anyway, I don’t often order eggs benedict, as it is so easy to ruin (overcooked eggs and botched hollandaise sauces being the two worst offenders, in my opinion).  But Alfred’s nails it every time.  Alfred’s has quite a bit of space, somewhat subdued lighting and some nice wood furniture and paneling about the place, which all gives it a cozy feel.  , but you can end up waiting a few minutes for a table.  And you might need to park a block or two away.  But those are small prices to pay for a good breakfast.  And I always seem to bump into someone I know there, which is a pleasant reward of its own.  So, next time you are hankering for a good weekend brunch, I definitely recommend Alfred’s.