There's no cross-section photo because I ate it too quickly.
While there isn't technically a category for Best Breakfast Croissant in our annual Best of Houston® issue, the spot would be easily and handily filled by B&B Donuts on Westheimer. There really isn't even a contest.
We discovered (and that's using the term loosely, really, as it's in a very noticeable strip mall in the middle of Montrose -- not exactly hiding out somewhere) B&B Donuts when we were running late to work the other morning and needed somewhere quick to stop for breakfast. The first good sign about B&B came when we noticed that it was Vietnamese-run. Of the many things the Vietnamese know how to do amazingly well, two of them are bake bread and slap fried eggs on top of stuff -- two huge winners in the breakfast book. (Ed. Note: We realize now that the lovely ladies who run BB's are Cambodian. Error duly noted.)
The second good sign about B&B came when we saw that it was packed -- and not with the type of Montrose-area residents that typify the widespread gentrification in the area. These were OG customers, on their way to construction sites and house-painting gigs. And they all looked like regulars, ordering swiftly off the menu as if they ate here every morning, the Vietnamese women behind the counter chatting happily with them in Spanish.
My friend Jay Francis refers to the neighborhood west of Beltway 8 between Bissonnet and Beechnut as BissBeechistan because of the excellent Pakistani restaurants found in the area. La Sani is the most famous of the bunch. But Francis is extremely fond of King's Chicken on Beechnut for the fried chicken, excellent Afghani-style naan and wacky pizza.
Somebody asked me if Houston had any upscale French-Vietnamese restaurants the other day. This is a popular category in Boston, Chicago and other cities across the country. Given our large Vietnamese population, its odd that Houston doesn't have such a place at the moment. I told the questioner about Le Bec Fin, the charming little French-Vietnamese bistro that used to be located on Milam. And I promised to keep my eyes open.
That's why I had to stop for lunch when I spotted the sign outside Nguyen-Ngo French Café on Bellaire across the street from Hong Kong City Mall.
Nearly ten years ago, the bagel craze that was sweeping the nation hit Houston. Strip mall after strip mall soon held an Einstein or a Brueger's or one of many smaller independent bagel shops. And the two stalwarts of the old Houston bagel community stood by, bemused.
Hot Bagel Shop in River Oaks and its older sister, New York Coffee Shop & Bagel in Meyerland, have been fixtures in not just the Houston bagel and Houston breakfast scene for years, but just the Houston restaurant scene in general. Hot Bagel Shop has been in its run-down and somewhat seedy location since 1984 (although it's moving -- thankfully -- to a new space within the next month or so), and New York Bagel has been serving breakfasts and bagels since 1975.
A Houston Chronicle article from the business section in 2000 (which, of course, can't be linked to because the Chron's archived articles are famously unavailable online) discussed how other chain bagel shops were completely unable to put a dent in the business of either Hot Bagel Shop or New York Bagel, and for good reason. These two shops are the real deal. Or at least as close to the real deal as you can get in the Bayou City.
Now that the fad has all but passed, these two timeless little shops still turn out the same tasty breakfasts and bagels as always. But which shop reigned supreme in this week's Food Fight?
Nutella, for those who've never tasted it, is the "original creamy, chocolaty hazelnut spread." Popular in Europe (it's made in Italy), Nutella is mainly eaten at breakfast or for dessert by smearing it on bread or a croissant, or folding into a crepe. "Nutella" is a brand name, but like "Kleenex" or "Xerox," it has been "genericized" to refer to any spread made with hazelnuts and cocoa.
Nutella inspires fierce passion in its diehard fans. Brand-name Nutella is indeed creamy, with a consistency and taste of chocolate icing, but not as sweet, and with a nutty aftertaste. I admit to being a fan -- one of my favorite breakfasts is a made-from-scratch, hot-out-of-the-oven croissant slathered with Nutella and washed down with a double espresso.
My first experience with Nutella came during a college summer abroad in Italy. My roommate was a chubby Greek kid named Dimitry. Dimitry would sooth his crippling homesickness by constantly spooning Nutella out of a container he always carried in his bag. Turns out it's a great comfort food. In the ensuing years I've continued to eat Nutella off-and-on, picking up a small jar at the supermarket or, if circumstances warrant, a jumbo container at Costco.
Recently, I received an email newsletter from the Midtown Farmer's Market announcing a new vendor that features homemade, artisanal "Nutella." This past Saturday I decided to stop by and check it out.
In August of 2004, I asked a truck driver in the parking lot of Laredo Taqueria on Patton if he agreed that the spectacular breakfast tacos we just ate were the best in the city. "Second best," he said, "the best is Cherry Bakery." I had never heard of Cherry Bakery, and I begged the guy for the location of this El Dorado of the breakfast taco.
The truck driver said "East of I-45 near Hobby." I have been trying to find the place ever since.
After a five-year search, I finally stumbled upon the Cherry Top Bakery and Taqueria last month. But I fear I was too late. The business appears to be in decline. The signs in the window advertise tortas, pan Mexicano, flautas, gorditas and other such goodies. But the former bakery doesn't sell any of that stuff anymore. Granted, the tacos are made on freshly-made flour tortillas and the barbacoa is stellar. But Laredo Taqueria on Patton is a much better breakfast joint.
There are those of us who are naturally early risers. And to those people go such wonderful things as brilliant sunrises, early morning calm, blessedly empty streets and the smell of freshly brewed coffee. And then there are the rest of us, for whom significant motivation is required to crawl out from under the burrow of sheets. And what greater motivation is there than the allure of breakfast tacos?
Breakfast tacos are just one of the many benefits to living in Houston (in case you forgot that there were any). Although they are ubiquitous here, you'll quickly find as you move east or north that you'll be virtually unable to satisfy any cravings you have for flour tortillas filled with eggs and meat, unless you take matters into your own hands.
As a result of its omnipresence, every Houstonian has a favorite breakfast taco place. This week -- to shake things up a bit -- we asked our followers on Twitter to recommend their favorite taco places for us to try. We had lots of votes for Whataburger (hey, Texans love their Whataburger), along with a few more suggestions, which we've pitted in battle for your dining pleasure.
This plate of huevos rancheros with bacon and homemade flour tortillas set me back $2.29 at Taqueria Jesus Maria in South Houston. You can breakfast equally well at dozens of other taquerias all over town -- Kiko's on Fulton and Pancho Villa's on Wilcrest both charge $2.99. Dos Amigos on Washington gets $3.25 for an excellent Tex-Mex breakfast special.
So imagine my amazement when a commenter recently bemoaned the fact that Houston didn't have any breakfast restaurants on par with Magnolia Café and Kerby Lane in Austin. I have been told that the food quality at those two establishments has improved since the years when I was the restaurant critic of the Austin Chronicle. Back in those days, the pancakes were leaden and the hashbrowns were underdone. Regulars put up with such slop because they were trying to get a date with someone on the waitstaff.
But hey, whatever floats your Cheerios. If you demand an overpriced breakfast served by somebody sporting some ink, then eat at an Austin-themed restaurant like Dry Creek Café or Cedar Creek Café in the Heights. One bite of that cutesy little $6 "Egg Samich" or $8 "Sixth Street Migas," and you'll swear you're back in weird old Austin.
Personally, I am pretty fond of the under $3 breakfast specials at Houston taquerias like Jesus Maria on Spencer Highway or Kiko's on Fulton. But when I have to entertain visiting grandparents at breakfast time, I head for the stretch of Westheimer just east of Beltway 8 near the Hilton Hotel and the Carillon Shopping Center.
Rio Ranch at 9999 Westheimer may have faded a bit since its glory days in the early 1990s, when Robert Del Grande introduced the new Cowboy cuisine there, but it still puts out one hell of a breakfast buffet. Rashers of thick bacon, great link sausage and a well-stocked omelet station are big attractions; so are the waffles, the pastries, the strong coffee, and the breakfast drinks.
A couple of doors down, the Sabine River Café in the Carillon Shopping Center at 10001 Westheimer is putting out some oversize Tex-Cajun breakfasts with fresh-fried beignets. I recommend the All-Cajun Special Breakfast -- andouille sausage, hash browns, beignets and eggs any style for $7.49.
If you like devilled eggs, try the ones at Nielsen's Delicatessen at 4500 Richmond. Mayo connoisseurs have been known to drive across town to get the famous house-made mayonnaise there. And that extra-rich, fresh-made mayonnaise is what makes the egg salad sandwich at Nielsen's taste so good. At $6.60, the egg salad sandwich is a little too pricey for breakfast. So instead, I buy two devilled eggs at 75 cents each and a slice of buttered rye bread -- it tastes just like a half an egg salad sandwich, if you ask me. And with tax, this awesome devilled egg breakfast comes to $1.86.
Pulling up to Dot Coffee Shop off I-45 will remind you of middle-of-the-night bathroom trips at Howard Johnson's during marathon road trips (even if watching Chevy Chase movies is as close as you've come to touring the country via highway). The oh-so-'70s neon sign on the building reads "Steaks, Shakes, and Pancakes." Yes, please.
Inside, the restaurant is narrow but bright and clean, and something of a mystery. It's obvious that the place was decorated in the '70s, with wood paneling, amazing eight-sided hanging light fixtures and the pièce de résistance, a mallard-duck-themed faux-stained-glass window. And yet, the overstuffed vinyl booths are unblemished: no holes, no tears, no cigarette burns. Booths at Chili's are more worn down than these, which means either a) the booths are magically self-healing, like that girl on Heroes, or b) somewhere, there still exists a plant producing and selling '70s-style booths. Both possibilities are equally frightening.
Cucuzza is a Sicilian squash that's sometimes eaten young like summer squash and sometimes allowed to grow to three or four feet, when it's eaten like winter squash. (It's the one that looks like a green baseball bat.) Cucuzza squash blossoms are also considered a treat in Sicilian cooking.
Each female cucuzza squash blossom has to be pollinated to turn into a squash -- the problem is that the blooms only last for one night. So cucuzza growers put beehives in the squash field during the season. The bees take care of the nocturnal pollination duties, and in the process, they make the treasured cucuzza miele di fiori, as the squash blossom honey is known in Italian.
So when I found four bottles of cucuzza blossom honey for sale for $5.50 each at Canino's the other day, I couldn't resist. The pale-colored honey has a delicate flavor that's great for breakfast.
Start your day with a thick scallion pancake, wonton soup, seaweed salad, dan dan noodles and a pot of hot tea from the dim sum menu at the Fruitiful Café at 9889 Bellaire. This new Shanghai-style Chinese restaurant opens for business at 9:30 a.m. and serves dim sum daily, according to the sign in the window. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the earliest Chinese breakfast in town, right?
Be forewarned, it's not the Hong Kong-style dim sum you may be used to. There are no carts, just a menu. The tea is made with tea bags, not loose tea. The dumplings come in orders of 15 instead of three. And instead of the crunchy, finely minced, iridescent green seaweed salad you usually get from the dim sum cart, here you get a tough black seaweed served in large clumps. "It looks like the stuff that washes up on the beach," a breakfast companion complained.
Chris Morris is sipping coffee at the bar. It's dark and sleepy at 9:30 am inside the Downing Street Pub, a cigar-and-mustache type of place where an imposing rack of whiskey takes up most of the back wall.
Morris jumps behind the bar like he owns it and grabs three bottles of bourbon, which he made himself: the regular Woodford Reserve and two bottled just for the pub.
The master distiller at Woodford, Morris's liquor palate ranks among the best in the world. He is one of the few American judges at the annual International Wine & Spirit Competition in London. He's also the only American distiller to receive the title of "Keeper of the Quaich" [a shallow drinking bowl with two handles] by the Scotch Whisky Association.
The poppy seed kolaches at Olde Towne Kolaches on Memorial near Kirkwood are stuffed extra thick in a nice moist pastry dough, Is my addiction to poppy seed pastries genetic or is it the opiates in the little black seeds? I don't know but my Eastern European grandmother baked poppy seed rolls and kolaches all the time when I was growing up and everybody in my family craves the inky black stuff. It sure makes your teeth look weird.
My mother can't find poppy seed pastries in Georgetown, Texas where she lives, so she always buys some when she comes to town. I used to take her to Three Brothers Bakery where she bought the poppy seed strudel, but since Three Brothers has been closed, I've been looking for a new source. The poppy seed kolaches at Olde Towne are good enough for me, but they aren't going to suit mom. They are much too sweet. (Do I taste orange marmalade in the poppy seeds?)
Anybody know of another poppy seed source? Ma is jonesin' big time.
The cinnamon-covered pastries at Pico's Bakery were called congrejos, which is Spanish for crabs. They did look like crusteceans with their claws aimed forward. They were so darn cute I bought one and took a big bite hoping for the best. It must have been a sand crab because it tasted like a big bite of the beach. It was just as dry as every other Mexican pastry I have ever eaten. Luckily, Pico's Bakery keeps a couple of pots of Katz's coffee brewed at all times. So I got a cup of coffee and choked the sandy crab down.
I started theorizing that maybe all Mexican pastries are dry in order to get you to buy more drinks--just like the free peanuts at the bar. But the girl behind the counter ruined my theory by recommending an excellent camote (sweet potato) empanada which wasn't dry at all. Pico's also sells breakfast tacos and tortas. Oddly the bakery doesn't bake telera bread, the typical torta roll. Instead, the tortas come on fresh bolillos. Sandwiches start at $5.50, which is about normal, but Pico's charges extra for avocado and refried beans, which is lame.
"$4 Waffle with Fruit from Brasil. Worth every penny. Olive and Feta Scone in the background with Fresh Squeezed OJ and Coffee. Good enough for a One Night Stand!"
Grabbing breakfast on the go can get stale very easily. Egg McMuffins, breakfast tacos, Starbucks muffins, kolaches, donuts...
All the quickly-obtained breakfasts of the busy, the mindless consumption of fast food, wearing upon you after so many Mondays spent idling in neutral at Whataburger, inhaling fumes from cars ahead of you while you wait for your taquito and Diet Coke. It's certainly no way to start your week.
So it warms the belly and the heart to run across a place that serves a fast and cheap breakfast that's honestly good. Manena's Pastry Shop and Deli on Westheimer at Wilcrest offers just that. Drop in when they open at 8:30 a.m. and you're greeted with the fresh, yeasty scent of just-baked bread and the equally welcomed scent of strong coffee.
Breakfasts at Manena's can be as simple as grabbing a pre-bagged trio of vigilantes rellenos, sweet croissants that have an unexpected filling of quince jam, for only $1.50 and a cup of their dark, rich coffee for 99 cents. But if you've got a few more minutes (and a little extra cash), you'll want to grab an empanada or two.
I took one for the team this morning and finally consented to try one of Starbucks' new artisan breakfast sandwiches that have been created as part of an effort to put "real food" into the stores aside from fatty pastries and dry croissants.
Y'all owe me for this one.
The Good: The artisan bacon sandwich that I ordered was not short on the bacon. There were six strips of thick bacon that were so good, they made me briefly forget that they'd just been zapped in a microwave instead of cooked in a skillet. The artisan roll that snuggled the bacon, egg and cheese inside of it was warm and pillowy, not at all chewy or tough. Together with my grande coffee, the total came to just over $5.
Hidden away in an easily-missed, non-descript building next to Conroe High School is one of the best restaurants in town, and I don't say that lightly. Egg Cetera is exactly the type of restaurant we need more of, but its uniqueness only makes it that much more special.
Egg Cetera's most easily identifiable mark of quality is the fact that absolutely everything they use -- everything with the exception of the milk -- is organic. The eponymous eggs are hand-gathered yard eggs from Dustin's Farm in Weimer, west of Houston along I-10. The seafood, whether Gulf shrimp or blue crab, is all freshly-caught. And not only is everything fresh and organic, all the food is made from scratch, in house, every day. The sauces, the salsa, the salad dressings -- all are homemade by the owner, Chuck Winslow.
Chuck and his wife, Cynthia, came here by way of Maui and San Francisco, where they previously operated restaurants with the same fresh, organic standards. Moving to Conroe in order to be closer to family, they decided to try their hand at opening the same type of restaurant in Montgomery County, opening Egg Cetera in July 2008. And it's been an unbridled success.
On the last day of our stay at the Fairmont Orchid resort on the Kohala Coast, I told the waiter at the breakfast restaurant, "I'll have a super loco moco." When he asked what that meant, I complained that the last time I ordered a loco moco, I got one egg and some sort of mini-burger on a tiny appetizer plate. It was fine for a kid's portion, but it was no "de kine grind" loco moco. (de kine=good, grind=eats).
That must have gotten somebody in the kitchen excited because when the waiter returned, he was carrying the fanciest loco moco I have ever seen. The burger patty was a half pound Black Angus number from the grill menu and it was cooked beautifully to red-pink medium-rare in the middle. The gravy tasted like some kind of veal stock reduction. The eggs were over easy and splendid. And the plate was decorated with a salsa garnish, cilantro, and a curly green onion. I call that a proper loco moco.
And I mean that in the best possible way, of course. In addition to creating one of the more popular farmers markets in town, Monica Pope -- head chef at locavore paradise t'afia -- is now offering free cooking classes every Saturday morning at the restaurant, located at 3701 Travis in Midtown.
Green Plum Cooking School is hosted by Chef Pope at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday mornings and features a new class every week, as you learn to make dishes with the local food and produce available that morning at the Midtown Farmers Market (which is also held at t'afia on Saturday mornings). Alice Waters' beloved book (and one of Pope's guiding tomes), The Art of Simple Food, is used as a rough guide each week.
This Saturday's class will feature Pope teaching a course on how to make omelettes and turnip soup. Sign up begins at 9:00 a.m. sharp and classes accommodate 45 people, so make sure you get there early!
I had pastrami and eggs at the Carnegie Deli on 7th Avenue for breakfast one day last week and while I was sitting there thinking about what a unique New York food experience this was, it dawned on me that I could eat pastrami and eggs in Houston anytime I felt like it. And it would probably cost me a lot less money. (Although I have to admit that pastrami at Carnegie Deli was awfully good.)
The reason we don't think about New York Jewish deli breakfasts in Houston is that we are too busy wolfing down Czech kolaches; Tex-Mex migas and huevos rancheros; Mexican barbacoa and carnitas; and Southern catfish and grits, chicken and waffles, and biscuits and gravy. In fact, we have so many great breakfast traditions around here it's hard to get around to all of them.
"That pan sausage from Burt's is fabulous," Marcus Davis, the owner of the Breakfast Klub said. He's not alone in his opinion. Many people think the pan sausage at Burt's Meat Market is the best breakfast sausage in Houston. The sixty year-old Cajun-Creole meat market is located in the Fifth Ward at 5910 Lyons, just east of Lockwood and just north of I-10.
Marcus Davis grew up in the Fifth Ward, so when he opened the Breakfast Klub on Travis and Alabama, he proudly served Burt's pan sausage. But then the logistics got out of hand. They were going through so much sausage at the restaurant, Davis and his brother decided to start making their own blend. "I hope we can be like Burt's some day," he said.
Hangover brunch sounds a bit juvenile, come to think of it. But let's be honest: if you're staying overnight in Galveston on one of the upcoming Mardi Gras weekends, chances are that you aren't going to be feeling 100% the next morning.
If that sounds like you -- or even if you're just in the mood for a healthy breakfast -- then you won't want to miss the Mardi Gras Brunch served at the stately Hotel Galvez every Sunday throughout February. The gorgeous hotel's beautiful seaside restaurant, Bernardo's, will be serving up a bountiful buffet of Cajun and Creole cuisine alongside regular brunch items, prime rib and fresh seafood each Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
And if you need a little hair of the dog, Bernardo's will also be featuring a Bloody Mary station and complimentary mimosas and champagne. Frankly, nothing perks you up after a long night (hungover or not) like mimosas and coffee. And prime rib probably wouldn't hurt, either.
Brunch is $35 per person and reservations are strongly recommended.
Are you hungry for breakfast? Are you poor (or at least cheap)? Good news!
Just in time for the recession, all Denny's restaurants across the nation are offering their Grand Slam breakfast for free tomorrow only from 6:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. That's two pancakes, two eggs, two sausage links and two strips of bacon -- for free. Sure, it's no Humongous Bucket of Eggs and Meat, but it's a free hot meal! You can also add a side of hashbrowns for only $0.99. Oh, and your coffee and orange juice are regular price. Don't complain, Jack Benny; you can do what my tightwad friend does and order a bowl of lemons with your ice water. Take some sugar packets, et voila! Free lemonade! (Seriously, please don't do that.)
Not that I'm thinking about theme food for a football game or anything, but what about this for an inspired Rust Belt/Sun Belt fusion dish?
My family is from Pittsburgh, so I associate the foods I ate in my youth with the Iron City. And I ate a lot of fried bologna and scrambled eggs. My father, who grew up in the South Hills part of town, considered fried bologna a delicacy. When he made us fried bologna sandwiches, he always made an incision on a radius from the center of the slice to the outer edge to allow the bologna to shrink. As I recall, the bologna was usually black by the time he was done frying it. For breakfast, he favored fried bologna and scrambled eggs.
I've been in Texas for most of the rest of my life, and the Tex-Mex dish called migas has become as common breakfast at my house. Robert Amaya of Amaya's Taco Village in Austin once told me that migas isn't really a breakfast dish among Tejanos. When he was growing up in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, his family didn't ate eggs for breakfast. They ate migas on Friday nights and during Lent when Catholics couldn't eat meat.
I put ham, chorizo or bacon in my migas sometimes, so the idea of substituting fried bologna seemed like a natural. Tasted great to me, but I can't say that anyone else at my house was interested in joining me for breakfast.
Gospel Brunch at the newly-opened House of Blues is a funny thing.
You're sitting in a darkened concert hall, your ears ringing from the thundering sounds that rumble through the elaborate sound system and shake your bones, your eyes assaulted by a kaleidoscope of brightly-colored lights, all while you sip daintily at your bottomless mimosa and praise Jesus at an early (for some...) 11:00 in the morning. To say that it's a dichotomic situation is putting it lightly.
That's not to say that Gospel Brunch won't be popular here in Houston, as it has been in the other nine cities where the House of Blues holds the event every Sunday. I have no doubt that it will. After all, there's nothing that a good Houstonian loves more than things that clash.
The French-Korean breakfast pastries at Tous Les Jours bakery in the H-Mart Korean grocery store at 1302 Blalock are a little different. The cream puffs are filled with sweet red bean paste and the long buns are stuffed with sweet potato paste. My favorite is the sweet and savory croissant with salty yellow American cheese on the inside and powdered sugar on the outside. The bakery café also offers espresso drinks and a wide selection of fruit juices.
Tous Les Jours started out as a French bakery in Korea when fresh baguettes were hard to come by. The first full service Tous Les Jours bakery opened in Gu-Ri, Korea in 1997. Customers buying bread wanted to sit down and eat fresh croissants and drink coffee, so beverages and a café seating area became part of the concept. The company started selling franchises and now has over 1000 bakery cafés in Korea, China, Vietnam, and the U.S. There are two Tous Le Jour bakery cafés in Texas--the other one is in Dallas.
-Robb Walsh
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