The Liberty Park neighborhood is a charming place to spend a summer day. It’s close to Herman Franks Park, there are always cool markets popping up along its avenues, and you have Tracy Aviary and its accompanying botanical gardens when you need to relax with your avian friends.
For early risers who like to spend their mornings at this great local park, you may find that you need a grab-and-go breakfast to match the unique summer energy of this part of town. If so, look no further than Frankie & Essl. Located just across the street from the southwest corner of Liberty Park, this cozy diner specializes in breakfast sandwiches, locally roasted coffee, and cold-pressed juices.
Although Frankie & Essl’s aims to prepare a quick breakfast that can easily be carried with you, its in-house dining room is bright and welcoming. I passed by on a windy summer morning while I was out and about, and the experience was a lovely oasis in an otherwise hectic day of errands.
I tend to reach for a good breakfast sandwich when my own internal batteries feel undercharged; I get a well-deserved burst of positive vibes no matter when I knock one out. Since my current knowledge of Frankie & Essl was based on following their Instagram account for candid photos of their well-curated menu of breakfast sandos, I knew they would provide the pick-me-up I needed.
Frankie & Essl’s offers a lean menu consisting of five basic sandwiches. Each is served on a locally baked brioche bun that has been sliced, buttered and toasted until lightly crisp before being stuffed with the good stuff. I tend to judge a breakfast sandwich by the quality of its sausage, so I started with the Sausage, Egg and Cheese Sandwich ($9.49). I guess I’m using sausage as a reference because it’s a hard protein to mess up, which means it’s even harder to get it out. After letting a few bites of this masterpiece of flavors and textures truly penetrate my palate, I knew Frankie & Essl’s was on the right track.
The full name of this sausage is “Honey Spicy Sausage”, and that’s exactly what you get here. There’s a real temptation to turn breakfast sausage into a gigantic salt bomb, but Frankie & Essl’s took its time with this one. Texturally, it’s a perfect protein for a breakfast sandwich: it melts in your mouth with all that creamy egg yolk. Yet its flavors are subtle and refreshing, which is hard to do with a breakfast sausage. The sage notes of a classic sausage patty are there, but to a more muted degree. This gives way to the caramelized sweetness of the honey, creating that epic salty/sweet combo that makes us want to drizzle maple syrup all over our breakfast meats. The cast of American cheese and arugula performs admirably, and it’s clear that Frankie & Essl’s is the real deal when it comes to breakfast sandwich nuances.
Bacon, Egg and Cheese ($9.49) and Bacon, Egg and Canadian Cheese ($11.49) highlight the porky magic of these charcuterie products. Although I would probably make the sausage, egg and cheese sandwich my favorite at Frankie & Essl’s, both of these sandwiches are great when you absolutely need to munch on some hot bacon with your eggs.
For something meatless, the Understated Eggs and Cheese ($6.99) reminds you that quality eggs, butter, and toast don’t taste as good as they do. The same goes for the egg, tomato, avocado and cheese sandwich ($7.99), which swaps American cheese for gouda and incorporates a delicious avocado spread into the mix. Then again, it’s hard to imagine how good freshly sliced tomatoes and fried eggs taste when they’ve been made with a little sea salt and love.
Those looking for a caffeine fix with their breakfast can take advantage of the work of Later Days Coffee and locally based La Barba. Frankie & Essl’s also has a refrigerator well stocked with Happy Moose orange juice. Their Valencia blood orange is super tasty, so whatever drink you like to start your morning with, they will have something tasty for you.
Between the well-curated menu of classic breakfast sandwiches and the rotating menu of locally baked, seasonal pastries, Frankie & Essl’s has somehow snuck its way to becoming the casual neighborhood restaurant Liberty Park needed. It’s one of those places that has to be close to a park, and vice versa. There’s just an all-embracing summer vibe about Frankie & Essl, and it’s the kind of place you come away with on the sunny side.
