Sweet Morning Carbohydrates at Tecolote Cafe, Santa Fe NM

Tecolote Cafe, Santa Fe

At Tecolote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico, they serve "great breakfast, no toast".

Now, I know. You're thinking...what's wrong with toast? Certainly it's a likeable foodstuff.

But as I found out on a recent visit, after taking a bite or two of what they do offer here, you won't even care why they don't serve toast, because you won't miss it.

First off, the "bakery basket". When you order an egg breakfast, you get a choice of tortillas or "bakery basket" as a side when you order. I want to urge you to NOT BE A FOOL. Because while tortillas are undeniably tasty, the bakery basket is the way to go here. This is what you can expect (and this is for one person):

Tecolote Cafe, Santa Fe

The sweetest basket, with muffins and biscuits! On the day of my visit, it was blueberry, corn-jalapeno, and pumpkin muffins, and a biscuit. This could change on the day of your visit, but I promise it will be tasty.

Tecolote Cafe, Santa Fe

But on to breakfast. If there is even a small part of you that has an interest in pancakes, you must order a pancake here. They are delicious. They are huge--salad plate sized--so one is perfect, especially if you add fruit or an egg or something on the side. Yes, if you look at the top picture you will see I ordered an egg. I know this is a big deal because it proves that I ate something other than sweets. Don't worry, I didn't eat anything else that wasn't sugar-coated all day.

I got the Atolé Piñon pancake. To translate, this is a blue cornmeal pine nut pancake. And was it ever good. The slight grit of the cornmeal gave the pancake an interesting texture and wonderful natural sweetness, and the mellow, rich pockets of toasted pine nut gave it a nice crunch every now and again. Topped with (warmed!) syrup and butter, this was a thing of sweet beauty to behold and to then store in my stomach. It was a warming and hearty and pretty much perfect pancake. 

They also had "Tollhouse" pancakes -- with chocolate chips and nuts. 

Now. Tecolote has sweet French Toast offerings too (I didn't ask why it was ok to have "no toast" but French Toast was OK): on the day of my visit, there were various fruit and chocolate and nut options. Tasty town!

Basically what I am saying here is that if you do not go to Tecolote Cafe as soon as possible, you are doing yourself a great disservice. 

Tecolote Cafe, 1203 Cerrillos Road in Santa Fe, NM. Online here.