I love breakfast. It is, indisputably, one of my six favorite meals of the day. But I've always had a problem with breakfast, too: It generally doesn't come with enough alcohol.
Oh, sure. There are bloody Marys. The beautiful people have their mimosas and their straight champagne. And Irish coffee is always a possibility -- provided you can stomach Bailey's and whipped cream and sprinkles and want a breakfast beverage that tastes like a mouthful of liquid candy.
But I am a rather simple fellow, and when I have the urge to drink in the morning, I don't need any foofaraw. I don't want to trick my body into thinking it's getting something healthy. I don't need to mask my unhealthy tendencies by wrapping them in tomato juice or whipped cream or burying them under a mound of sugar. No, what I want is a little bit of whiskey and a little bit of caffeine to get the day started right.
Which is why, once again, I turned to one of Boulder's most shameless pushers of all things deliciously bad for you: Dave Query. While at brunch yesterday at his West End Tavern on Pearl Street, I discovered that Query offers one perfect and unvarnished morning pick-me-up on his menu. Right there on the bottom of the page.
See it?
Beam and coffee, $4. A splash of Mister James Beam and a hot cuppa joe for less than I've paid for certain breakfast burritos elsewhere in town, less than I've paid for a single shot at more civilized hours.
And that, my friends, is one of the reasons why I've come to like and respect Query and his restaurants so much over the years. He is a man who knows what the people want -- deviled eggs, barbecue sandwiches, giant plates of bacon, Bulleit bourbon-spiked root beer floats and, most important, whiskey for breakfast -- and is more than happy to give it to them.
