Breakfast Beat: Farm-Style Eggs and Pastries in the Heart of Scottsdale

Each week, we review a different breakfast spot in town, highlighting culinary offerings, brunchability, and the overall vibe as you sip your morning joe. Whether the restaurant in question is grab-and-go or stay-and-play, each offers a unique breakfast buzz that might be just what you need for the most important meal of the day.

The Spot: Arcadia Farms
7014 East First Avenue, Scottsdale
480-941-5665

The Scene: Picture a prairie farm and envision the farmhouse, the kind with a rusty truck, a weather vane, a grain silo. Now lift that farmhouse from the grassland and drop it into Old Town Scottsdale. Welcome to Arcadia Farms, where a slow agrarian feeling pervades, one translated from what farms are actually like to what people would expect in Old Town. The surprisingly big restaurant has charm and, at times, feels like a portal to a rural bed and breakfast. Breakfast starts at 7:30 a.m.

Tablecloths are white linen. Wine bottles are stowed away in wooden shelves, ready to be plucked and poured into your glass. Motley mirrors and mounted plates hang from austere walls. Some seats are upholstered in black-and-white checks. Shut your eyes, hover your hands in the steam from your coffee, and chomp into your free strawberry scone. Maybe you aren’t really in Scottsdale but in Kansas or Nebraska.

The Goods: Baked goods are one of the elements that sustain the thin illusion. In addition to strawberry scones, there are no-frills pastries like coffee cakes, lemon-blueberry muffins, and rugelach. An almond croissant has a circular, muffin-like base rather than the curled of the French original. That croissant has a burnished exterior, crisp and toasty, with sweet almond flavor on the inside.

Full breakfast dishes come in sweet and savory. Your server may steer you away from sweet if you go bananas with the pastries – wise guidance. If you skip the pastries, a sweet breakfast main like berry crepes or baked French Toast could be the right call.

Savory breakfast dishes have farm-like rusticity. Egg whites cooked with asparagus have simple flavor and the kind of no-frills nature that somebody ordering this dish would expect. A flaky crust contains the warm filling of a mush-room-and-leek tart, which flushes your mouth with the hot tang of goat cheese when you bite into one of the creamy white pockets. Many dishes come with potatoes that are on the soft end, often a bad thing, but a nice one here.

Smaller dishes like muesli, parfait, and bread pudding with blueberry sauce are a good option for those looking for a quick morning bite.

The Bottom Line: Come here when you want a low-key farm vibe, throwback pastries, or a hearty breakfast
Special Something: Eating outside here is the way to go. Sit out front or in the shaded lane next to the restaurant, and let the narcotic of al fresco dining take you.
Hours: Open Daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Price: $$
Coffee Options: Regular or decaf
Juice: Lemonade, OJ, Arnold Palmer
Drinking Before Noon: Mimosa, Kir Royale, and Bellini