Janet's Montana Cafe

I was meeting a friend out in East County. He was doing me a favor so I let him choose the restaurant where we would have lunch. He suggested Janet’s Montana Café in Alpine. There’s another Janet’s closer to El Cajon, but the one in Alpine is the original location and it’s bigger and has more ambiance. The location also made for a nice drive. Janet’s is situated in a rustic old structure that looks like a camping lodge or a log cabin, perfect for the setting in Alpine. It has a huge, shady wrap around porch on the outside. We opted for the outdoor seating so we could take in the warm spring scent of pine that was wafting through the air. There’s plenty of indoor seating if you don’t mind sharing the space with mounted animal heads. Janet’s serves big, hearty portions of good old fashioned diner/steakhouse style food with a few Mexican dishes and some lovely specialty salads thrown in for good measure. But we had a hankering for breakfast and Janet’s does up breakfast big! I was torn between the Spanish omelet and the huevos rancheros. I chose the omelette which came with a huge pile of delicious home fries, which I’ve always preferred to hash browns. You can also have hash browns or fresh fruit plus your choice of toast, buttermilk biscuit, pancakes or a giant muffin. The biscuit was the ticket for me, which I slathered with butter and honey. You don’t often get homemade biscuits like these unless you’re lucky enough to have your mom make them for you. My friend devoured his spinach omelet, but was so stuffed that he had to take his giant muffin home with him. Janet’s features ten omelettes, six of which are vegetarian. You can also create your own. Of course they serve eggs any style with ham, sausage, pork chops, bacon, steak and corned beef hash. They also turn out biscuits and gravy, eggs benedict, waffles and huge pancakes. I’ll be going back to try the French toast made with cinnamon rolls, and for the fresh mountain air of Alpine.