It's Wednesday morning. Hump day. The day after the most important election in recent memory. You did vote, didn't you? And now it's the day after. You were up late last night, either celebrating or drowning your sorrows. You need some breakfast to get you moving again. Fortunately, James Brown, no relation to the Godfather of Soul, is there for you, cooking up breakfasts at his Culver Road "place" that will wake up your tastebuds, warm your tummy, and leave you feeling energized for the day to come.

The menu at James Brown's Place has something for everyone: everything from the standard eggs, pancakes, and omelets to tacos, burritos, gyros, and any one of 80 different variations on eggs Benedict. The choices can be overwheming: seven varieties of pancakes, 16 different omelets, 10 meats (including andouille, chicken sausage, chorizo, and smoked pork loin in addition to the usual bacon, sausage, and ham), and more riffs on the theme of frittata than I can comfortably count without taking off my shoes. Even with all this variety James Brown continues to innovate, putting a new spin on breakfast. Note the number of "new" items on the menu, and then come back in a couple weeks. This is a man who is pushing the envelope of breakfast food in exciting ways.

Pancakes are a good place to start. Brown's basic pancake batter is light and fluffy with enough backbone not to fall apart under the weight of the fillings that he and his cooks fold into it. Fistfuls of chocolate chips or peanut butter chips (or a combination of both), and blueberries fill the pancakes ($3.99 short stack, $4.99 full stack). Or they can be topped with warm bananas and candied walnuts for a remarkably comforting treat. For my money, though, Brown's pumpkin pancakes ($4.25 short stack) are the best decision you can make. The towering stack of hotcakes gives off an intoxicating cloud of vanilla and spices that puts a regular pumpkin pie to shame. Topped with gobs of butter and syrup (pony up the extra half buck for the real maple stuff) and liberally garnished with candied walnuts, these are tender enough to soak up butter and syrup but not so porous as to disintegrate into sugary mush, as many pancakes do.

There are usually five variations on eggs Benedict available on James Brown's menu, and two or three others on the specials list. These are only a sampling of the 80-some "Benedicts" that Brown has either invented or had suggested to him by customers over time. Some have become semistandards, showing up on the specials list fairly frequently. Others, I get the feeling from talking to him, were one-off attempts that may never make an appearance again. Brown starts from a solid base. His basic eggs Benedict ($5.89) is among the best - the hollandaise tight without being gummy, the flavors still bright, adding a welcome zip and a creamy dimension to the familiar interaction between perfectly poached eggs and salty ham. One of the most unusual variations on the Benedict theme is the Esther Benedict ($6.99), which combines the usual eggs, hollandaise, and English muffin with fried green tomato and thick cuts of fried eggplant. The crunch of the fried bits, the lemony bite of the green tomato, and the creamy hollandaise work particularly well together in a dish that will make vegetarians very happy indeed.

For those who want a more traditional breakfast, the core eggs, home fries, and meat are available, but even here things get an intriguing spin. Of late, Brown has been experimenting with a smoker, turning out delectable smoked pork loins and smoked turkey, both of which take a quick walk across the griddle, getting a nice caramelized edge in the process, before sliding onto the plate alongside the potatoes and eggs. The pork ($5.49), in particular, makes an elegant departure from the usual bacon or sausage. It also adds an extra dimension of smoke that works well with the fried potatoes and onions dusted with "Max Spice" - the ubiquitous cayenne and salt spice mixture found on every table in the restaurant. Forgo toast and use the last slice of pork as a sop for those egg yolks instead.

Brown really pushes the breakfast boundaries in his reinterpretation of that brunch warhorse, the frittata. First, it's worth noting that Brown's frittatas are not really frittatas. The traditional dish is more of a crustless quiche, eggy and usually jacked up with herbs and sharp cheeses in addition to vegetables. I like James Brown's frittatas much more than the traditional version. Plate-sized combinations of ingredients with just enough egg to bind them loosely together, these are more closely related to the "scatters" popular in roadside diners in the South, but what he does with them would make any Southern grill cook's head spin. His Greek frittata ($7.49) combines onions, peppers, potatoes, and generous chunks of beef and lamb souvlaki with eggs and tops them all with creamy and tart feta cheese for an entirely satisfying dish that is somewhere between a gyro and moussaka. His Pacific Rim frittata ($7.69) is closer to exceptional fried rice than reinterpreted breakfast dish. Chopped spicy beef sausage, shreds of "Asian" smoked pork loin, and onions, peppers, and eggs and rice (yes, rice) are topped with a drizzle of sweet-salty teriyaki for a dish that nearly begs for chopsticks - or at least a fortune cookie to finish off the meal.

After polishing off my Pacific Rim frittata the other day, and looking down the table at the remains of pumpkin pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, two Benedicts and a bagel sandwich, I asked Brown what he was thinking of putting his own spin on next - what's the new frontier for breakfast? He looked thoughtful for a moment, and then leaned in close. "I'm thinking," he whispered, "about sauces...."

James Brown's Place

1356 Culver Rd, 288-4250

Monday-Friday 6 a.m.-2 p.m., Friday 5-9 p.m., Saturday-Sunday 7 a.m.-2 p.m.