Excerpts from the breakfast notebooks:

"1/30 Thursday

"Had breakfast last Sat. with Sarah. First we met at the Birchwood Cafe, but just as I'd suspected - it was one of those coffee & roll breakfast places. Or quiche for $4.95. No thanks! Sarah remarked how clean it was there and it was nice except for the annoying slant of the menu. So we went to Peter's Grill downtown and it was fiercely cold and there wasn't a good place to park - all meters taken and withthe one-way streets its hard to turn around to try another way. It was dead downtown aside from the cars taking all the spaces. Probably only 8 people at Peter's and its such a huge place it felt uncomfortable. The muzak was way too loud, the farthest ranks of booths unlit. Like visiting a going-out-of-business sale when they close off most of the building.

"...Sarah didn't like her ham & cheese omelet, wouldn't eat more than half of it. 'This omelet isn't good at all,' she said pushing the plate away, 'the cheese isn't melted - its all crumbly & blocky,' she grimaced.

"I can't even remember what my meal was like, pancakes & sausage, I guess. The pancakes were alright, the sausage very good. The coffee decent. I wonder if my opinion of the food has more to do with my mood and sunshine, plans for the day.

"Peter's doesn't have the history on the back of the menu but they've got a framed portrait of Peter Ascot watching over the goings-on with a cool eye & tight smile. And of course pictures of President Clinton at the counter & his autograph. But there's also a framed menu when everything was 5c or 15c, an then -- there is the history -- a Barb Flanagan column from 1967 tells the whole story.

"Sarah thought it was funny that our waitress wore such a formal uniform and comparing it to any other cafe on a Saturday it is out of place. But probably on a busy weekday with all the downtown crowd it'd be different"