dodo for breakfast

i don't eat much in the way of breakfast. i'll make exceptions for dim sum or lox but i'm just not hungry before the crack of noon. i'm just not your earlyeatin type of guy. but the idea of eating with an extinct animal for breakfast will get me to walk the 3 mins from my house to dodo.

i've been there now 4-5 times since summer and each has been very nice to excellent on many levels. dodo's are a visual motif throughout and help lend a mellow arty vibe which i much prefer to the yuppie milk and honey crowd just down the street. so far i've had interesting well prepared food with consistently pleasant service and coming from me, that would be a compliment.

todays "breakunch" (their term) specials included a coconut pecan belgian waffle w/mango compote and strawberry chantilly and a dodo strata w/spinach, grilled tomato, roasted garlic and gruyere over squash medley w/lemon zest, arugula and sweet marinara. another was the dodo quiche lorraine w/brocolli rabe, seared pancetta, roasted shallot, and smoked gouda over tangy greens w/sunflower seed hollandaise.

see what i'm saying here? not bad for stumbling distance.

i had the okonomiyaki. not easy to find in the states. it was a little on the al dente side for my liking but respectable. the fact that it was on the menu in the first place gets extra points from me.

anyway if you're in the hood, eating with this extinct animal is a nice change from the local standards for breakfast, lunch or in this case maybe "breakunch".

dodo
open wkdays until 3pm and wkends until 2pm
935 n damen
cash only

I'm curious, is there any reason they call it "breakunch" instead of "brunch"?

Love,
John

Now, I have not been to DoDo since the first weeks of it opening, but the portions of each of the 3 meals ordered were VERY small; skimpy even. Have things in this regard changed? Not looking for a mammoth plate of food, just the norm you'd expect from a breakfast place.
Jamie

Good name for a breakfast place, especially for those who wake up slowly. In French baby-talk, "fais dodo" means "go beddy-bye."

never once felt that the portions were an issue.

i also meant to mention that i was @ a gallery opening in the neighborhood one nite and the food was way above the avg fare. enough to make me enquire where it came from... it turned out it was catered by dodo.

as to why they call it "breakunch" you'd have to ask them. marketing perhaps?

in the neighborhood, there are superior (and much more comfortable) offerings for brunch:

Bravo
Bin Wine Cafe
Hot Chocolate
Jane's
Parlor
Rodan

the list ostensibly avoids earwarx, bongo, milk/honey, francesca, etc.

previous good vibe dodo thread

dodo and the J. pancake.

It appears as if Dodo is moving on. As of the 28th of this month, they're closing. The plan is to reopen (larger and with air conditioning) in early 08 on the corner of Fulton and Damen.

Yes, they would like to be in a place where they don't lose power when the upstairs tenants decide to blowdry their hair. The new location will also have outside seating if all goes well.

i finally made it to dodo today... It must have been over 110 degrees inside the place, literally. no question it was over 100, it felt like air conditioning when we exited to the outside coolness of the 90 degree weather... The waiter and everyone else was sweating beads (literally I could feel sweat dripping off of me inside my clothes, a nasty feeling indeed). People were afraid to order coffee at brunch it was so hot. It's one thing to not have air conditioning--I've been to plenty of great brunch places without AC.. But a completely other thing to have your kitchen mixed in with your dining room and have not proper kitchen ventilation contributing heat to the dining room (which in this case is the one in the same--the kitchen is not seperate from the dining room).

aside from the AC/ventilation (and i constantly hear about their power going out), i wasn't all that impressed w/ the food or their prices.

It was so hot inside my SO didn't want a hot breakfast so he just ordered the fruit, saying we'd stop elsewhere on the way home for food to go... I ordered an omelet. The fruit plate was saran wrapped something they pre-made. it was ordered with the idea that it would be cold and refreshing... they unwrapped the saran wrap and we watched it sit for a good 15 minutes while my omelat was being made.... the plate itself was really skimpy, and apparently not good fruit. I tried some of the cantaloupe and it was like eating a waterry blob, no flavor at all. And it was $5 for a very small amount of fruit... My omelet was OK but it was too hot to eat more than 4 bites... So I took it to go and it'll sit in my fridge for a few days before i decide it's garbage.

Our total after tip/tax was $24... considering SO didn't even eat a meal I'm still not sure how it got to be this expensive, but all I know is I'm probably not going back any time soon, even if the new location has modern conveniences such as vents and AC.

Anyone know if this is back open? Says early 2008 everywhere, but the number is disconnected.

I had heard that they were going to reopen somewhere closer to Fulton, but this was a long time ago. I have a feeling they might have just called it quits.

Scratch that--I just looked on Metromix and it says they are reopening at 2003 W. Fulton Market late summer or early fall 2008. Next time I'll google before I give bad news! I hope this is true. I'll try to go by that location soon and see if there's any activity.

that was their planned reopening location all along. it does seem like they've pushed back the date now.

i went to the old dodo in their last week and found it to be over hyped ... they were giving out cards for free coffee at the new fulton location at that time... the old place was disgustingly hot (i didn't bring my thermometer, but i'd venture to guess it was well over 95 in the place), so hopefully the delay is them trying to figure out how to ventilate a kitchen and get a working A/C. it was pretty gross getting food from a server dripping in sweat, then yourself dripping in sweat. and the food was only memorable because it was really bad. for a $25ish check for two (where one only ate a fruit place), i found the place to be a total ripoff. i nearly brought an out of towner there a few days prior, i'm so glad I didn't, it would have been really embarrassing...

there is a big banner/sign for dodo on the corner of damen and fulton...maybe they're getting closer to re-opening.

Dodo has reopened, sort of.

The folks who were Dodo bought Dino's Morgan Inn, 954 West Fulton Market. Dino had it for 25 years, and before that it was the Morgan Inn for about 55 years.

They aren't changing a lot about Dino's, because it already has a good following from the folks who work around there. Regular weekday breakfasts, eggs, pancakes, bacon. Lunchtime is sandwiches, etc, along with fresh ground, never frozen, hand made $3 burgers. They don't serve food at night yet, though they are operating as a bar until (I think) 2 am. If things go well they do plan to serve at night at some point. They have painted and spruced up the interior some.

Dodo makes its appearance on weekends, with brunch specials you will remember from the old Dodo on Damen - Okonomiyake, special hash and omelet of the day, etc.

The same nice cooks and wait staff are there, too.