Baker's Restaurant

Because Baker's Restaurant is also a candy shop, and because the whole place is done up in red peppermint stripes and decorated with hundreds of family pictures from decades gone by, it can be hard to focus on ordering an actual meal. "How about just asking the waitress for two pounds of that butterscotch fudge from the case and a couple of ice-cream sodas?" you ask your breakfast date. "After the sugar rush kicks in, we'll make up the life stories of the people in this picture from the World's Fair, or that one over there of the teenagers in bellbottoms." When your date insists on sticking to breakfast, go for the Monte Cristo sandwich ($7.95 with fries, home fries, potato salad, or greens), which will satisfy your sweet tooth and your eggs-cheese-and-meat jones, and make lunch unnecessary to boot. Stacked high with ham, real turkey (not the pressed junk), and American cheese, grilled between four slices of French toast, and sprinkled with powdered sugar, Baker's echt Cristo doesn't make a lick of sense, but it sure does taste good. The lengthy menu offers just about every imaginable diner tradition (for lunch and dinner, too), and then some. Vegetarians will be especially delighted to find that even way up in Lake City, they can enjoy meatless soy sausage with their pancakes—or on the side with their butterscotch fudge. 12534 Lake City Way N.E., 206-365-1888. LAKE CITY