San Diego Reader

• Restaurant | American | Breakfast | Mission Beach

The Olive Cafe

• 805 Santa Clara Place, San Diego, CA 92109 | Directions
• 858-488-1224 | Website

Tasseography — the art of telling the future from what you see in coffee grounds or tea leaves, or even wine sediments — is part of the deal when you buy Turkish coffee here ($2.10), at least in the menu. It’s all a hangover from the lady who started this place. She was Turkish and had blue glass eyes placed everywhere to ward off the evil eye and bad spirits if they were about. And in 2005, when Sarah Mattinson bought the place, she lost the blue eyes, but kept a lot the same. Including the Turkish coffee. They have dozens of egg combos. And the outside patio is great, with flowers and trees, on a quiet streetlet off Mission Boulevard. You get the neighborhood, vacationers, the student laptop crowd and even the kids coming shivering from in-water lessons at the surfing school.