It starts with the basics - crispy homemade pizza crust, usually painted with Italian-style tomato sauce and sprinkled with a layer of cheese. Then the chef adds the egg - some opt for scrambled eggs, while others do an over-easy egg, letting the oozing yolks run over the cheese. "With a wood oven, you can make a great pizza, you crack an egg on it and it speaks for itself," says Paul Canales, executive chef at Oliveto in Oakland.

Oliveto Cafe (5655 College Ave., Oakland; 510-547-5356) rolled out breakfast pizzas eight years ago, and Canales said the morning bite has earned "universally positive" feedback from patrons over the years. "It started off as a curiosity, but now it's got super-devotees," he says.

Customers feast on wood-fired breakfast pizza on paper-thin crust; they can play it simple with a one-egg pizza ($8) or they can go all out with a pie dotted with pancetta and topped with two eggs ($12).

At Rose's Cafe (2298 Union St., S.F.; 415-775-2200), the organic breakfast pizza is sprinkled with a blend of aged fontina and mozzarella, and topped with smoked ham and eggs sitting on a thin crust ($15). Chef Mark Gordon, who says the item is one of his best-selling dishes, also fashions a pizza with creme fraiche, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon ($16).

Redd Restaurant (6480 Washington St., Yountville; 707-944-2222) plates breakfast pizza with thinly sliced prosciutto, scrambled eggs and creme fraiche ($14) for its Sunday brunch.

This article appeared on page F - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle