I LOVE BREAKFAST

I could eat “breakfast foods” for each and every meal. (Let’s be honest though, all foods are breakfast foods.) My absolute go-to breakfast (break-feast!) is a garlic, mushroom, spinach, egg, and cheese burrito (with white flour tortillas because no substitutes even come close to comparison in taste and chewiness).

I love avocado toast, but I find it’s hard to incorporate as many flavors into avocado toast as it is my beloved breakfast burrito tradition. However, my whole Avocado Toast Paradigm was dramatically shifted recently after visiting a new coffee spot in Capitol Hill.

I first learned about Black Eye Coffee through my magazine job, as we editors were scouting great restaurant designs for a project. I hadn’t even been to the original LoHi location! Blasphemous as a Denverite and coffee-lover, I know.

The original location has a less refined atmosphere and a more limited menu. The new Cap Hill location aims to expand upon the delicious, exclusively roasted coffee and fresh pastries with a full breakfast, lunch, and dinner menu, as well as a full bar.

(The liquor cabinets rotate when the sun goes down, creating almost a completely different ambiance between its am and pm menus. So cool!)

A BOOK-AND-COFFEE-LOVER‘S PARADISE

Let me go off on a design tangent for a sec. The design of Black Eye Coffee Cap Hill is on point. The owners designed everything themselves; I’m surprised they don’t have degrees in interior design! The whole industrial-chic theme is inspired by Poet’s Row, with literary references galore:

• bookshelves built into the dining booths
• neon signs of poetry lines
• a wall of writer portraits
• and a menu of cocktails each named after poems

Okay, now back to breakfast. We arrived around 9am, which is early for the Denver “brunch” crowd, but we still anticipated at least a 45-minute wait. Lo and behold, many Cap Hillians are still in bed that early on a gorgeous Saturday morning (or they’re already playing in the mountains!). The neighborhood was sleepy and only a few people had trickled into the restaurant before we arrived. We were delighted to be seated right away!

ALL THE TOASTS!

Like true foodies, we had studied the menu prior to arrival (I mean, for real, who doesn’t do this?). But I also had heard from multiple people, including the owner himself, that we much order the avocado toast. So we did, as well as the french toast. Here’s a more detailed description of each plate form the menu itself.

AVOCADO TOAST:
Cashews, homemade flax seed bread, cilantro (Add a poached egg and/or bacon)

FRENCH TOAST:
Season fruit compote, powdered sugar, maple sugar

WHY IT’S THE BEST

I don’t even know where to start. Let’s break it down.

• First, home made bread. Need I say more? Well, yes, because that’s just the foundation of this divine menu item.
• The flax seed added chewy, fibrous, nutritious deliciousness to the bread (I am a professional food critic).
• Of course we added the poached egg. What isn’t significantly improved with a poached or runny, fried egg? I mean, come on, people.
• The cashew paste, for lack of a better word, added even more healthy, plant-based protein and an extra nutty taste to the mashed avocado.
• The fresh cilantro added a serious-yet-simple flavor boost.
• The extra cashews were perfect for a bit of a crunch. NOM!

It is all home made, fresh, made with care, and significantly tasty and nutritious. Just, go try it now!

ABOUT THE FRENCH TOAST

It was good, too! The seasonal compote was strawberries and rhubarb, the latter of which I’m not the biggest fan of. The bread was a little too soaked in the egg batter for my taste. The consistency resembled bread pudding, almost. But you couldn’t get past the home made taste and the confectioner’s sugar + real maple syrup combo. It added some sweetness to the savory avocado dish. (I always prefer savory breakfasts, though.)

 WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE BRUNCH SPOT OF ALL TIME?