My wife and I decided to take a 7 vacation in Pacific Grove in October, 2020. My wife found a quaint 2 bedroom house with an ocean view on the edge of town close to the downtown action. I had done a bunch of research online and it looked like there was an abundance of good restaurants, cafes and coffee shops in the historic area of the main drag. We loaded up the trunk of my wife’s Tesla Y and secured our 2 Trek electric bikes on the tow hitch bike rack. It was our intention to ride our eBikes every day.
Looking to have a dine out breakfast on our first morning we drove up and down Lighthouse Ave until we decided on this historic looking restaurant. We walked into the outdoor dining patio around 8.30am and were embraced with loving attention by the owner / founder Paul Aliotti within seconds of sitting at a table. Hard to beat a friendly welcome like that ! There was already a few diners enjoying a hearty breakfast on the outdoor patio despite the quite chilly morning . . it was only 55F. A lovely server named Rhonda looked after us from the get-go when we ordered 2 x Lattes, 1 x Fresh Orange Juice, 1 x Eggs Benedict ( hard poached ) and 1 x The Dooling ( Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, Bowl of Fresh Fruit ).
My wife’s Latte came out courtesy of Rhonda and Paul the owner fetched my Latte for me. They use a Nespresso machine here but our lovely Lattes in their elegant glasses tasted wonderfully invigorating in the cold weather. Paul told me he opened this restaurant 43 years ago and they are still going strong. In fact he said they are NUMBER ONE IN PACIFIC GROVE. That is a great achievement ! The Aliotti family also operate the B & B upstairs. My tall glass of fresh Orange Juice hit the table and tasted great.
Our breakfast dishes came out together and looked spectacular. My Eggs Benedict was cooked perfectly . . no runny eggs and my wife said her scrambled eggs hit the spot. Paul also introduced us to his son Domenic who runs the restaurant these days with his wife Mary. We could tell that a lot of the locals were dining here..a sure sign of a good eatery. I asked to see the lunch and dinner menus because we were pretty impressed with the friendly service and the great tasting food. In fact we came back for a delicious breakfast 3 days later and enjoyed a relaxing dinner on our last evening in Pacific Grove. My wife and I enjoyed our vacation break in this cute little hamlet and Aliotti’s was one of the highlights !
