O’Mara’s brings a finer dining experience to breakfast

By Bonnie Caprara
BerkleyLive Editor

For the past 17 years, O’Mara’s has been the go-to place for better lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch dining with an Irish twist in Berkley.

“And for everyone who told me that adding breakfast is like opening a new restaurant, they were right,” says O’Mara’s general manager Lewis Sawyer.

And after months of planning, staffing and menu development, O’Mara’s opens for breakfast on Sept. 12. But don’t expect the standard diner breakfast fare of run-of the-mill pancakes, sausages, scrambled eggs and hash browns.

O’Mara’s is the latest restaurant to enter the realm of finer dining breakfast, a trend that Chef Tom Keshishian, a chef consultant and host of Channel 56’s “Dining in the D,” says has been growing in popularity since 2000.

“Since I started doing breakfast pizza, I’ve seen chefs taking that to supersonic levels,” Keshishian says. “With the availability of so much fresh produce and meats, there’s no reason not to do it, and the folks at O’Mara’s are doing some very creative stuff.”

French toast just isn’t sliced white bread dipped in an egg and milk batter and tossed on a griddle. There are varieties made with house-baked banana and zucchini bread. The crispy French toast is made challah encrusted with corn flakes and dipped in custard before being topped with a fresh mixed berry compote. Eggs Benedict can be had with pancetta and capicolla, Roma tomatoes and pesto made with basil straight from O’Mara’s own herb garden, or crab cakes loaded with chunk crab. And, yes, there’s an Irish farmers omelet with house-made corned beef, red peppers, onions, potato and smoked Gouda – that’s if you’re not tempted by the asparagus and potato or gorgonzola and spinach omelets, frittatas, wraps or scrambles first.

Just like their house-made soups and sauces, attention to detail is put into their breakfast staples such as the house-smoked salmon on its smoked salmon scramble and crepes, house-cured and smoked bacon, and house-made preserves.

O’Mara’s even enlisted the help of a neighboring business, Kristea’s Tea Room & Mercantile, to provide two of their custom-blended teas — Kristea’s Custom Blend made with black tea, cardamom, sunflower, white chocolate and cherry, and a mint tea made with a blend of different mints. Kona coffee, fresh-squeezed orange and grapefruit juices, and fresh fruit yogurt smoothies round out the breakfast drink menu.

By no means did any of the breakfast dishes appear on the menu by accident or whim. O’Mara’s culinary staff tested the breakfast menu on 150 volunteer taste testers.

“People took it very seriously because we wanted their honest opinions,” Sawyer says. “They gave us a lot of comments on how to make the seasonings more appealing. We tested more items than are on the menu and eliminated some things people didn’t care for.”

“There were some serious foodies that took part, but for the most part, they used ‘for real’ guests to gauge what people liked and could afford,” adds Keshishian, who emceed the taste testings.

The breakfast menu will always be a work in progress. Sawyer says the restaurant will be adding vegetarian and gluten-free offerings in the next 30 days.

O’Mara’s, 2555 W. 12 Mile Rd.; 248-399-6750