What a find! I'd walked past this tiny spot a couple of times, but this morning I'm glad my sister,…read morea friend, and I stopped for breakfast. Before I tell you about Brio, a note about the location; be sure that you don't go into the crepes place right next to it. It is easy to get confused, and the crepes people do not always set you straight.
Oscar, the young owner, is behind the bar and is quite friendly, and you can tell he has put much into this place. The menu has a surprisingly wide list of choices for the size of the restaurant, and you can choose between coffee/tea drinks, bullet drinks, and breakfast dishes. Beatriz, the waitress, told us about a "package" deal that included coffee, bullet drink, and a breakfast dish for $90 pesos! Of course we agreed.
The coffee, which Oscar procures from a relative from Pluma Hidalgo (traditional coffee-producing area), is quite good. I prefer coffee that has a few more layers of citric or herbal notes, but the one that Oscar brews is heads and shoulders above any of the other coffees served up and down Amapolas Street or other cafés downtown. I was curious about the latte and plan to order it next time, as I've yet to find a good latte in Oaxaca.
The bullet drinks are either water- or milk-based, and the flavors include some that can be expected with other more esoteric or at least original combinations. The water-based one I chose, recommended by Beatriz, was lime, ginger, and mint. It was absolutely perfect to take the edge off the overly hot May Oaxacan morning. Moreover, the size of the drink wasn't too large, so I had room for the Moroccan eggs (huevos marroquís) that soon came.
The Moroccan eggs came in a clay pot, with a small cluster of ground beef, topped by edible flowers and tender carrot greens, all covered with a tomato sauce that was a well-balanced combination of spices. I detected some cumin, cilantro, garlic, and something else, but clearly different from most of the somewhat watery, epazote dominant tomato sauces most restaurants use. The only way to improve the dish would be to leave the eggs a bit less cooked, with a runnier yolk, which I mentioned to Oscar when he asked how we'd liked the dishes. He mentioned that the original recipe for the eggs includes harissa (traditional moroccan spice), but that he had decided to leave it off because customers didn't like it. Too bad; I would've liked to have tasted that version of the recipe.
My sister had a potatoes and ???? omelette that came with a lettuce salad, and which she liked very much. She mentioned that the eggs were cooked just right and seasoned different from other potato dishes. The salad was also fresh, with a vinaigrette that brought it all together. Our friend's dish were pieces of bread with chorizo on top and a small dish with diced tomatoes and other condiments. She asked Beatriz to leave the cheese off, which I thought would've brought it all together, but was happy with what she ordered. All three of us agreed that Brío is a restaurant to which we would return. I am definitely coming back for dinner soon.
