OEB. The initials seem like they should stand for Over Easy Breakfast, but that full title does not appear in or on the restaurant, nor in any advertising, nor on the restaurant chain’s website.
Instead, founder Mauro Matina insists that it stands for Outstanding people, Embracing evolution, and Bold food integrity.
What OEB does is inventive, quality cuisine served in a comfortable atmosphere. For instance, you can order your Classic Breakfast – two eggs (your way) with herbed potatoes fried in beef tallow – with a lofty amount of choices for a side: hardwood smoked bacon, Canadian bacon, rosemary ham, blueberry chicken bangers or artisan bangers, and artisan toast ($17.50).
The chain brunch restaurant, which opened its 20th location in Victoria in Spring (and its first in Victoria), does not have much of a street presence. If not for the sandwich board and hot yellow umbrella out front, I may have walked right past its dark glass façade in the new high-rise next to the Capital Ballroom.
Within, a surprisingly large food court serves just one vendor. The bold slogan fixed to a wood-panelled marquee above the kitchen reads "Fill the Soul". An open ceiling crammed with ductwork is partially covered by egg-shaped sound baffles that drop poached egg-ball pendent lamps over square tables and moulded plastic chairs scattered across polished concrete. There’s even a bar that serves all the breakfast classics, espresso-based coffee, juices, various milk and not milk products, pops and flavoured waters, fruit smoothies, but also local beer, wine, specialty coffees, a flight of mimosas (Orange, Grapefruit, Pineapple, and Mango: $17) and a long list of Breakfast Cocktails.
Though it has only been open in Victoria for two months on the day of my first visit, already it is gained a loyal following. It is busy, and yet the space is large enough that there is no line. I am immediately seated, coffee served and menu delivered.
The menu is extensive and divided into several sections in which I find plenty that is unfamiliar: Chia Seed Pudding? ($16.) A Korean Bulgogi Bennie? ($22.) An assortment of breakfast poutines? Pierogies and Duck? ($22) French Toast Trifle? ($20.50)
I order the Forestiere ($22.50), under the “Not So Tini Crostini” section. Not tiny is correct. This generous slice of artisan white bread is loaded with wild and cultivated mushrooms, garlic confit, hummus, tartufata (an aromatic blend of mushrooms, truffles, olive oil, salt and garlic), truffles, lavender fleur de sel (the thin crust of salt that forms over seawater as it evaporates), micro-greens and two poached eggs, which I’ve ordered soft to let the yolk run into and blend with the other flavours. It is earthy, umami rich and delectable, as I imagine a top-notch-chef-inspired forestiere might taste. It fills me plentifully and I don’t miss the missing meat.
Mauro Matina, who founded OEB in Edmonton in 2009, claims that his vision from the start has been to earn the very first Michelin Star for a breakfast restaurant. And my, Ah-hem! “crostini” is, most certainly, elevated breakfast fare.
OEB Breakfast
856 Yates Street, Victoria | 778-445-3447