COUNTER INTELLIGENCE: Breakfast at Tiffany’s. No, Really.

  As a kid growing up around downtown, once in a while I was treated to the great grilled burgers at the Liberty Café inside the White Cross Drugs at 1700 Las Vegas Blvd. S. By the time I started hanging out late, or rising early, the café was a refuge for a great breakfast and a mix of humanity seldom seen outside a Charles Bukowski poem.

  These days it’s called Tiffany’s Café. The breakfasts are still tasty, generous, and heart-clogging wonders heavily reliant on eggs, ham, and potatoes. My Breakfast Muffin ($5.75) was a sizable pile of all of the above with cheese. Picture an Egg McMuffin for a lumberjack, and you’ll get the idea.

  Business is slower than I remembered, but then times are tough whether you’re whipping omelets on the Strip or in the heart of the barrio.

  The Los Angeles Times on Monday featured a lengthy article that asked working stiffs how they’re getting by in this economy: Namely, by working harder, adding a part-time job, and always cutting back on luxuries.

  At Tiffany’s, business is complicated by some of the characters who come through the door. It’s physically and metaphorically pretty close to the street around here. The café delivers to the neighborhood 24 hours a day and is open every day of the year.

  These days, eating breakfast at Tiffany’s is a luxury for a lot of people. It’s too bad, because the place needs and deserves the business.