Avoid swooning by the seaside this summer by filling up on a hearty breakfast before you set out toward the coast. Today's Groupon gets you $20 worth of breakfasty fare at Fig Tree Café for $9. The Pacific Beach café, named Best New Restaurant 2009 by Beach & Bay Press, serves up fresh breakfast and lunch Thursdays through Sundays.

The breakfast and lunch menu is boosted by plenty of organic and locally grown ingredients, with enough vegetarian options to sate a herd of avocado-hungry, juice-thirsty herbivores. Start a weekend of sailing off right with Fig Tree's brioche french toast ($7.50) topped with bananas foster (add $2.50) or fresh strawberries and cream (add $2.95), or opt for the organic blue corn pancakes ($6.95) drizzled with orange segment syrup. All of the café's eggy delights are made with free-range "veggie pro" yolk spheres, and the plated protein can be enjoyed enfolded over smoked salmon and asparagus with a dollop of lemon caper crème ($9.95) or poached and served atop one of Fig Tree Café's five decadent varieties of Benedictine eggs, such as the crab cakes Bennie($9.95), or the vegetal zucchini- and asparagus-cake Bennie ($7.95). Transplanted East Coasters and time-zone deniers can toast the strike of noon in New York with a mouthful of the bacon- and avocado-topped chicken club sandwich with garlic or regular fries ($8.49) or enjoy a savory combo in the early hours with the grilled cheese and tomato soup ($7.50).

Breakfasters at the cozy café enjoy their morning meal amid nature, dining under a canopy of leaves on the picket-fence-enclosed patio. The next best thing to having a designated breakfast room in one's home is having a designated neighborhood breakfasterie. Redirect your breakfast room desires to Fig Tree, and see how the breezy setting and fresh air enlivens your next brunch with the in-laws or top-secret meeting of the Fans of Flaubert club.

Reviews

Fig Tree Café made ABC 10 News's A-List 2009 and was featured in Beach & Bay Press. Beach & Bay named it to six categories in its 2009 Readers' Choice Awards; Fig Tree took gold as the Best New Restaurant, Best Breakfast, Best Sunday Brunch, Best Patio Dining, and Best Pet-Friendly Restaurant, and silver in Best Catering.

• The café focuses on selecting high-quality, locally sourced ingredients and turns out generously-sized servings. Among its most popular dishes are the organic veggie-filled Windnsea Omelet made with locally laid free-range eggs, a Cobb salad featuring an interesting twist of dried cherries and a BLT served on a croissant with the unexpected addition of turkey and avocado. – Nicole Sours Larson, Beach & Bay Press
• The seating is under 4 beautiful ficus trees, surrounded by a white picket fence. Fresh ingredients such as house grown rosemary make for amazing food! – ABC 10

Ninety-two percent of Urbanspooners recommend it, and Yelpers give it four stars:

• They have mostly outdoor seating in a festive looking little patio or back garden area...I felt like I was eating in someone's backyard garden, only none of my friends can cook like that! – Jana H., Yelp