Ball Square bustles with brunch crowd

Sleepy Ball Square might have a Green Line stop one day. But for now the street is dominated by orange - the color of the signs at brunch mecca Sound Bites.

Two years ago, the restaurant opened a separate takeout place. This summer, the home base moved next door, doubling in size, and started serving dinner and drinks.

It's far from the only dish in town. With five breakfast spots in about as many blocks, brunch has eaten Ball Square.

The True Grounds coffeehouse is across the street; Kelly's Diner two blocks down; and the Broken Yolk around the corner. The family that owns Victor's Deli opened another restaurant, Ball Square Cafe, in the former Sound Bites space.

Undeniably, brunch is what draws overflow crowds from Somerville and neighboring towns to Ball Square, two-thirds of a mile from the Davis Square T stop. What they find when they arrive are restaurants and a whole neighborhood in transition.

The new Sound Bites, with its freshly renovated glass front and sleek bar, looked like a piece of Davis Square to Max Pfennighaus, 31, of Somerville, who visited late last month. The rest of the square - with its small businesses and mayoral candidates' signs - struck him as Davis Square circa 1994.

"There's no side streets with cool stuff?" he asked hopefully.

Expansive after 10 years of squeezing eaters into a room the size of a subway car, Sound Bites pasha Yasser Mirza has ambitions as big as his French toast slices. He now owns his building, formerly the Mexican restaurant El Guapo. "I'm going to make it so busy at night," he said. "I make everybody happy."

Some fans waiting to try the new digs feared the larger space would dispel the brusque Sound Bites charm. Waiting with a grumbling stomach, scarfing the signature garlicky whipped NoPlaceLikeHomeFries and an omelet the size of your head, lying down afterward to digest - it was all part of the Sound Bites experience.

"I thought it was part of the character - the rushing," said Carly Efros, 27, of Cambridge.

That might change.

"Before, I have 12 tables," Mirza said. "It's not allowed to read the paper in my store." With the larger space, he said, "I don't care if you sit down for two hours."

One familiar element clearly hadn't changed: A line snaked down the block.

To some, it was advertising. Pfennighaus figured the place must be good if so many people wanted to get in.

The wait was tiresome, but "not like I-wanted-to-kill-myself long," said his companion, Michelle Leotta, 27. Still, she said, "I don't think it was worth the wait or the hype." She said she might try dinner, but would likely stick to her home neighborhood Davis Square for brunch.

As before, the long line led some to jump ship. "We started out at Sound Bites and the line was out the door," said local Vanessa Venti, 24, sharing a muffin at the Broken Yolk. "We just wanted something quick."

As two people left the Sound Bites line for Ball Square Cafe, Tara Dankel, 26, of Somerville considered following suit, saying, "Breakfast places are usually pretty much the same."

The new cafe didn't seem to benefit all that much from overflow business, however; it was only partly full. "I kind of felt bad for it," Leotta said. "Maybe they just need a better sign."

But there are at least two fans of Ball Square Cafe, which opened Sept. 17. "The fruit was phenomenally fresh," said Denise Callahan, 41.

"It's awesome here," raved her companion, Jim Straticos, 60, of Medford. "This is the same, if not better" than Sound Bites. In fact, he said, the new joint's Cafe Potatoes were the same as NoPlaceLikeHomeFries.

"It's a big competition between these two guys," Callahan said.

His review pointed up a brewing conflict. Sound Bites and Ball Square Cafe sit side by side - giving their owners ample opportunity to sling hash at each other.

The dispute centers on money and menus. The old Sound Bites site is owned by neighboring deli owner Victor Moccia. When he couldn't agree on a new lease with Mirza, Sound Bites moved out and Victor's son Michael moved in. Michael Moccia then invited Sound Bites employee Omar Djebbouti to be his business partner.

Opening a restaurant fulfilled a lifelong dream, the younger Moccia said. "It was something I always wanted."

Mirza has a different perspective. "They get jealous of you and they kick you out," he said. "I want him to open fast and fail fast."

The heat only rose when the new restaurant's doors opened. Mirza claimed Djebbouti was a dishwasher who copied his menu; Djebbouti said he's a cook who helped start Sound Bites and created the original menu himself.

"It's not his menus, it's not his recipes, it's not nothing," Djebbouti said.

Mirza said Moccia lures customers from his line. Both restaurateurs accused the other of threatening violence.

The other spots in the square, who aren't part of this conflict, are establishing their own identities.

"We have our regular customers," said Broken Yolk manager Marisol Trujillo. "They always come here."

At True Grounds, only one table was empty, and many were piled with laptops and books. Melissa Franks, 40, of Somerville said she had already eaten breakfast. Chafic Menayri, 23, of Malden was drawn by its similarity to cafes in his home country of Lebanon. (That said, his companion, Nina Ata, 23, of Randolph, did rule out Sound Bites when "we saw that huge line.")

The '50s-themed Kelly's Diner also drew a dedicated fan base. Sharon Kingsbury, 46, comes from Arlington every Sunday to sit at the old-fashioned diner counter and read the paper.

Kelly's has "a homier feel," she said. "It's just a better fit for me." She particularly appreciated a raspy-voiced waitress who rags on customers and co-workers alike.

Holly Scott, 31, of Brighton observed that business at Kelly's slackened for a few weeks but then returned to normal. She is part of an informal weekly breakfast club that always sticks to Kelly's - even when 10 people show up.

"Your coffee is never empty," said her friend Donald Daniel, 26, of Medford. "They are ON that."

Conflicts aside, even Moccia and Mirza agree on one thing: Competition goes with the American dream.

After you try other breakfasts, Moccia said, "try us last. We'll show you how they're really supposed to be made."

"I'm very proud of myself, what I've done," said Mirza, who has never been in Kelly's and dismisses the notion that Broken Yolk is a threat.

Emerging from Ball Square Cafe, Callahan relished the battle's tasty spoils, declaring: "May the better breakfast win!"