Siano’s Pizzeria
5 Brentwood St., Portland
771.7878
sianospizzeria.net
‘Twas the day after Christmas,
and I really was hopin’
That I would find some place,
any place open
For breakfast or brunch,
but instead what I found
Was nothing but “Closed” signs
as I drove around.
Then finally I saw one,
and a smile crossed my face:
“Now Open for Breakfast”…
at a pizza place?!
Thanks for indulging that little holiday poem, gentle reader. But seriously, my 5-year-old daughter and I had been driving around for almost an hour and were starting to turn on each other. So when we spotted the sign at Siano’s as we drove down Stevens Avenue, we didn’t much care what we were going to get so long as it was food.
As luck had it, that food was really, really good — a genuine Boxing Day miracle.
The restaurant was nearly empty when we arrived around 10:30 a.m., perhaps because most folks don’t think of pizza when they want breakfast (or because the only people venturing out the day after Christmas are returning things at the mall). Needless to say, we had no trouble finding a suitable table for two.
Before I had finished taking off my coat, coffee had already been offered and delivered. It was hot, strong and freshly brewed. It took a few minutes to browse the breakfast menu, which is pretty extensive for a place that doesn’t specialize in breakfast. The prices were reasonable, starting at $3.75 for a basic two-egg breakfast with toast, meat and home fries, and topping out around 10 bucks for Eggs Benedict, steak and eggs, or one of several specialty omelets.
My daughter chose the French Toast ($5.50 for three slices). It was nicely cooked: moist but not soggy, browned but not burnt. The dusting of cinnamon on top was applied a bit too heavy-handedly, but that was nothing a splash of maple syrup couldn’t have fixed. Alas (longtime Serial readers know where this is headed), there was no maple syrup to be found, just that nasty, viscous corn-syrup concoction found too often in its stead. “The problem with this syrup is, it doesn’t taste like syrup,” my daughter said. “It just tastes like … sweet.” Wise beyond her years, that one.
Looking for something a little different, I ordered a breakfast pizza ($8.99 for the 10”, $11.99 for the 14”, plus a buck per topping). This wasn’t just scrambled eggs served atop a pizza crust, which would have been OK. Instead, they brushed the raw egg right onto the dough, topped it with cheese, bacon and tomatoes (my choices) and then baked it in the wood-fired oven. This approach resulted in a seamless melding of flavors and textures, with the egg soaking partway into the crust, toppings firmly anchored to the pie, and the wonderful smokiness of the wood present in every bite.
I probably wouldn’t have gone out of my way to try breakfast at a pizza place, even a good one like Siano’s. But now that I have, I’m happy I did. So happy that I just might write a poem about it. Next year.
— Dan Zarin
Siano’s serves breakfast Saturdays and Sundays from 7 a.m.-noon. In addition to a location on Main Street in Freeport, a second Portland location is scheduled to open next month on Fore Street in the space formerly occupied by Una.
