In an effort to make Mom proud, Chow Bella's taking a good, hard look at the most important meal of the day in the form of Scrambled, a mashup of breakfast recipes, news and reviews of local restaurants serving the a.m. crowd.
We were craving breakfast during lunchtime hours so we headed to Luci's Healthy Market Place, where breakfast is served all day. Luci's is that cute, cozy and colorful coffee shop/cafe/specialty market on the NW corner of 16th St. and Bethany Home. Parking can be tricky along the convenient street stalls, but you can always swing around and park in the back of the shopping complex, too.
We dined with a group of friends, one of whom had recently become gluten free and was excited to see the gluten free French toast on the menu. We were curious about the burrito bomb and the regular French toast, so we ordered those, too.
Service was hit and miss. The servers -- young men with walkie talkie buds -- might have focused a bit more on the people in front of them instead of the conversations in their ears.
The food arrived very quickly and our gluten free eater was thrilled. Later we learned the bread used for the French toast was made of rice, and are also sold in the refrigerated case of the marketplace.
Our friend who ordered the regular Fench toast loved most of her order as well as her coffee. But one extra-thick slice of her French tost didn't get cooked all the way through.
Here's our side by side photo -- gluten free and regular. Can you tell the difference?
We ordered the burrito bomb with chicken chorizo and thought the colorful potatoes (purple Peruvian and sweet potatoes) mimicked the sweet decorative tiles along the coffee bar. Freshly made salsa made this burrito very good even though the eggs got a bit overcooked when scrambled with the mild and flavorful chicken chorizo.
Other breakfast choices at Luci's include omelettes, waffles, pancakes, yogurt, fruit and oatmeal. Their full menu is online. Of course, there are always the pastries from the case that look mighty alluring and fresh for a lighter, thrifty choice. We love that in the market section, you will find a very large selection of refrigerated juices, teas and such like kombucha and flavored coconut waters.
If you're in the market for a breakfast that's more colorful than the ordinary and really dig that whole open air cafe setting, you'll be in for a treat.
