The Dory

29 Commercial St., Gloucester, MA - (978) 283-2408

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Posted By Michael Stern on August 24, 2000 6:44 PM

A pint-size breakfast-only nook on the waterfront, The Dory has a sign on its wall that says “Fishing Spoken Here.” This is where commercial and sport fishermen come before dawn for coffee, conversation, hearty breakfast, and more coffee. Repeat customers keep their own coffee mugs on pegs to the right of the counter.

The menu is big and fundamental, including egg sandwiches on white, wheat, Italian bread, or giant-size English muffins, stacks of pancakes with or without blueberries, and three-egg omelets with toast and home fries or hash browns. On the side you can get bacon, Canadian bacon, sausage, honey ham, Portuguese linguica sausage, or a meal-size order of corn beef hash. The gals behind the counter will even make you eggs Florentine with Hollandaise sauce or eggs Benedict further gussied up with pieces of asparagus.

What we like about the Dory more than its repertoire of breakfast, plain and fancy, is its attitude. A true blue-collar café, it seems always populated by at least a few gents (and a few ladies) whose profession and passions are guided by the tides, and who apparently are delighted to share with newcomers their devil-may-care philosophy of life. Over one breakfast at the Dory counter, we discussed omelet cookery, the fine points of food photography, bait strategies, swordfishing, and the worst storms of the 20th century; and about every subject, we were imparted the wisdom of genuine experience.

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