A.m.: Breakfast

Best Breakfast Overall

\ Oct 08, 2009

6 min read

Best Omelet: The Range Café (Eric Williams ericwphoto.com)

It’s easy to find a place that serves toast and coffee in the morning, but true breakfast havens are treasured commodities in this city. Weck’s prides itself on its "scratch-made" buttermilk pancakes, chile-doused papas and "full belly" meals that will not only keep you sated all day but will bring you back with the sunrise. Plus, it has gluten-free options. (CC)

2) Frontier

3) The Range Café

Best Pancakes

Patty cake, patty cake, baker’s man, pan-us-a-cake as fast you can! … What do you mean, “You can’t ‘pan a cake’ ”? Well, however Frontier’s flipping its flapjacks, they’ve been declared the tastiest in the land. And judging by how quickly Frontier’s weekend breakfast line moves, they’re getting panned pretty darn fast. So there. (LM)

2) Flying Star Café

3) Tie: Sophia’s Place, The Range Café, Weck’s

Best French Toast

Flying Star calls it “fabulous French toast” for a reason. Not content to merely dredge its house-made, thick-sliced bread in egg and call it a day, FS goes the extra mile by topping its toast with caramelized brown-sugar syrup, strawberries, banana slices and a fluffy mountain of real whipped cream. And it’s available all day. We know—there’s a lot to take in. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, you can still order the plain-old butter-and-syrup French toast. But please calm down or you’ll be asked to leave. (LM)

2) Weck’s

3) The Range Café

Best Omelet

Best Omelet: The Range Café Eric Williams ericwphoto.com

Watch the end of Stanley Tucci’s delicious film Big Night , and you’ll understand the sublime pleasure of fluffed and folded eggs. ’Round these parts, we all like our omelets in a variety of configurations, but you agree on one thing, apparently: The Range makes ’em best. The Range calls its ham-cheese-and-bell-pepper-combo the I-25 instead of the Denver, but you get the idea. (DOL)

2) Weck’s

3) Tie: Flying Star Café, Le Peep

Best Eggs

Weck’s takes it home again. This Burque staple makes eggs easy—substitute your standard yolked variety for Egg Beaters or egg whites at no additional charge. (CC)

2) The Range Café

3) The Grove Café and Market

Best Breakfast Burrito

The two burritos in first place are one and the same, since Frontier and Golden Pride are owned by the same people. Get your breakfast smothered in ranchero sauce with a side of people watching at Frontier or wrapped in parchment from a Golden Pride drive-through on your way to the office. (CC)

2) Blake’s Lotaburger

3) Dos Hermanos

Best Brunch

The Grove came along a few years ago and filled a void in this town, and there’s still nothing else quite like it. With an elegant menu and an atmosphere of unfussy sophistication, the café is suited for power lunches, introspective coffee breaks and Sunday mornings when the gleam in brunch-goers’ red, puffy eyes hints at Saturday night shenanigans. Plus, it has the best toast in town (see below). (JCC)

2) Slate Street Café

3) Zinc Wine Bar & Bistro

Best Bacon

There’s just no arguing with honey-and-red-chile-glazed bacon. None whatsoever. (DOL)

2) Frontier / Golden Pride BBQ, Chicken & Ribs

3) The Range Café

Best Breakfast Potatoes

The breakfast potato is a different animal than your dinner potato. At breakfast, they’re small and crispy, and at Weck’s, they come in giant portions. The hash browns are hefty and golden—all the better for soaking up eggs and chile on the way down to your thankful belly. (EAH)

2) Flying Star Café

3) Frontier

Best Healthy Breakfast (Md)

Fresh ingredients and reasonable portions mean you’ll fill—but not overfill—your belly with all things good at The Grove Café and Market. And you can’t go wrong with the colorful fruit salads that come alongside many of the vibrant dishes. (MD)

2) Flying Star Café

3) Annapurna’s World Vegetarian Café

Best Toast

Toast is the favorite food of Alibi graphic design wizard Jeff Drew. As such, he’d probably agree with Alibi readers and say The Grove is an expert in turning local bread into a crispy, satiating, above-par breakfast side. (JCC)

2) Frontier

3) Tie: Annie’s Soup Kitchen, The Range Café, Weck’s

Best Cup Of Coffee Or Espresso

These winners share the same cup, since Satellite is a branch on the Flying Star tree. Satellite brags a mean brew, with blends gliding all the way along the roasting spectrum. Mark Bernstein (the half of the Flying Star empire that heads Satellite) has been in the coffee business for 19 years, and it shows. (CC)

2) Café Giuseppe

3) Java Joe’s