The Daily Creative Food Co.: Fresh Breakfasts For Health-Conscious Folks

When traveling, I'm still convinced that the hardest meal to find is breakfast, especially if you are looking for a healthy breakfast. It's true that most hotels will have some sort of breakfast buffet — most of them consisting of stale bread, fruit that's probably not in season, and things that are supposed to represent eggs. (I've made a few hundred eggs in my life... they've never looked like those things that you get at a breakfast buffet.) So, before I go some place, I spend a lot of time looking for potential breakfast spots, searching menus, and finding something that will be acceptable. This time the place was Miami, and the spot was The Daily Creative Food Co.

Before going any further, I will say that I wish The Daily Food Co. was in every city I travel to. It catered to what I was looking for in such a perfect way, and I fully mean that. When I walked in, I knew this was the perfect type of place to relax and enjoy my breakfast the way I wanted. The walls had a newspaper décor. There was a flat screen showing Sports Center with plenty of seating. To the left was a case filled with drinks, the counter, and the cooking space stretched all the way back along the left wall. Above the counter was the giant menu board. And it was this menu board that had led me there in the first place.

The Daily features a variety of breakfast and lunch options — kind of your soup and sandwich type of place. But what got me is that there seemed to be a committed dedication not only to the healthy eater, but to the athletic eater as well. Items like The Ironman and The Boot Camp featured a variety of vegetables, turkey, and egg whites. There were a variety of all-fruit smoothie options. And on the counter was a vast selection health bars and snacks. Of course, there were the less athlete-conscious items like classic French toast or the Miami breakfast of Cuban-style pork hash. But even those seemed to be relatively healthy.

My choice for the morning was The Trainer, a breakfast wrap of egg whites, broccoli, peppers, onions, spinach, and tomatoes all bundled in a whole-wheat tortilla. To get a little fruit into my breakfast, I added a mixed berry smoothie, and topped it all off with a cup of coffee. I ended up with just enough time to pick out a place to sit with a good view of the TV, and add some Splenda to my coffee before my wrap made it to the table, and landed with a little bit of heft... let's just say they don't skimp on portion size. The wrap was bursting with vegetables and egg whites to the point that I could barely take a full bite. But I managed. The whole thing had a fresh feel to it, but the filling was lacking just a hint in the seasoning department. A little more pepper, a touch of salt, or even some type of sauce, like a fresh tomatillo salsa, would have pulled it completely together. As such it was good but a little bit on the bland side.

I ate most of my wrap, spent some time reading the paper and sipping my coffee, and then headed out to start my day feeling good, full, and ready to go. And while the flavors weren't explosive, I enjoyed it well enough that I headed back the next day, this time going for The Boot Camp, an egg-white scramble with zucchini, onions, mushrooms, low-fat cheese, and spinach with whole grain toast and tomatoes on the side. This one definitely had more flavor to it, aided a little by the black pepper I added. Again, it was a nice large portion that I couldn't completely finish, but was fresh and filling and a great way to start the day. I definitely recommend that if you are staying at any of the hotels along Biscayne Bay, do yourself a favor and get out of the hotel, away from the gross, unhealthy buffets, and check out The Daily. It is absolutely worth it, and you will feel so much better throughout the day... well, until you try and eat convention-center food. Blech!