Photo by Christ Bassett Toasted brioche stacked with spinach, fried egg and bacon

In his new book titled In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan claims that despite what we think we know about nutrition, we’re eating more poorly than ever before. As we move away from real food and shift to “edible, food-like substances” hawked by food industry marketers, we lose our health, our sense of well-being (consider our angst about trans fats) and the pleasure found in eating simple, honest food. Pollan offers a couple of straightforward solutions: 1) “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants,” and 2) “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food,” which rules out Hot Pockets, Go-GURT, Egg McMuffins, chocolate chip-studded “breakfast” bars and all of those candy-filled boxes found on the cereal aisle. See how easily his point is made? How many of us can even manage a decent breakfast these days?

But channeling Granny is easy peasy at Over Easy, a winsome breakfast operation that offers eye-openers our ancestors would not only recognize but also heartily endorse. After all, how can you argue with fluffy blueberry pancakes, thickly sliced bacon, smooth, house-made apple butter, crisp country potatoes and good coffee?

Chef-owner Aaron May, who turns out sensational tapas at Sol Y Sombra, took over an old Taco Bell on 40th Street and Indian School Road last summer and transformed it into a cozy, cheerful space, outfitted with retro-patterned tables and old-school chairs upholstered in metal-flake blue and silver. I’m not crazy about the plastic flowers in vases and the screaming yellow walls, but the original Taco Bell arches, the open kitchen, the super-cool swivel stools at the counter and the cramped but appealing covered patio are so likeable that I’m willing to overlook them.

Of course, what really puts me in a mellow-yellow frame of mind is May’s food, which is so good I keep finding excuses to drop by every other day. The guy is a bona-fide chef and a talented one, and although he’s not in the kitchen every second, his recipes are so masterfully executed you won’t know the difference. OK, yeah, it’s just breakfast food. But it’s really, really good breakfast food – simple but sophisticated. For those of us who adore breakfast, this is like the circus come to town.

On my first visit, I ordered something sure to win Michael Pollan’s approval, an egg-white omelet with asparagus ($8). And I must say, it was perfect – fluffy, light and not at all tough, as is often the case. I polished it off with seriously crunchy country potatoes (cut in chunks, not rounds) and a side of crisp-fried Neuske’s bacon (three thick slices, $3), which surely canceled out the virtues of the omelet, but I didn’t care. I was already planning a return trip for pancakes, waffles and French toast.

Well, I never got around to the French toast, served with caramelized bananas and pecans (which gives me yet another reason to go back), but I can tell you, the thick and fluffy pancakes, crisp around the edges and dusted with powdered sugar, are as good as pancakes ever get. I wish I had a stack of them in front of me right now, even though as I write this, it’s 2 o’clock in the afternoon. If I did have those blueberry-crammed lovelies at my disposal, I’d want some lemon curd to smear over them because that’s the way I roll these days. See, lemon curd accompanies the splendid blueberry muffin ($4), so my buddy and I figured it would be just as good on the pancakes, and we were right.

If your sweet tooth yammers to be fed first thing in the morning, you should also try the scone, studded with razz cherries (tart, dried cherries infused with raspberry flavor) and served with a drift of vanilla crème fraîche and a drizzle of honey ($4). It’s moist and crumbly, just as it should be, a dainty dessert-like nibble. And while we’re on the subject of sweets, don’t miss the small malted waffle, served with butter and maple syrup ($5). Like the pancakes, it’s flawless.

Photo by Christ Bassett Blueberry Pancakes

Photo by Christ Bassett French toast topped with caramelized bananas and pecans