Broomfield Restaurant Reviews

Habanero’s is a little Mexican quick service restaurant now located where Tacqueria mi Barrio and Tacqueria Tamayo used to be.  I’ve been there 3 or 4 times now, and have enjoyed it every time.

They have a larger staff than before.  Although the main cook who used to work at the previous two places is still there, there’s now a boss lady and a man who works the counter.  And they’re fully bilingual, unlike the cook, who has a little difficulty in English.

The menu changed, too.  Instead of just tacos, now they serve burritos, tostadas, tortas, and a few other things.  I especially like their breakfast burritos and egg plate.  Also, if you go, be sure to try their charro beans; they’re delicious!  Each day there are typically about 3 specials.  For example, today they had menudo (it’s Saturday), fish ceviche tostadas, shrimp ceviche tostadas, and fresh made guacamole and chips.

Since the remodel, the place is definitely updated and cleaner.  And they’ve always got the big screen TV turned to Spanish language channels.  Prices for main dishes are very good, but the side dishes are a bit steep.  For example, a side of charro beans is $2.50.  You get enough for 2 or maybe 3 people, though.

Oh woe!  Lafayette, Colorado has a lot of great dining options, and possibly more variety than Broomfield.  But there’s a dearth of restaurants serving Sunday brunch, it seems.

Beth and I set out this morning around 11:00 to try to find brunch in Lafayette.  We knew Casa Alvarez had what used to be a well-known breakfast buffet on the weekend.  I checked their website and it lists the Saturday and Sunday breakfast buffet, though it doesn’t say what you’re likely to find.  Beth was in the mood for American breakfast foods, and I thought a mix of American and Mexican would be nice.  So we headed straight to Casa Alvarez.  But as soon as we got seated, I looked around and had a bad feeling.  We asked the waiter, and he said they stopped doing their breakfast buffet about six months ago.  The regular lunch menu didn’t have food on it that Beth was looking for.

So we left, and headed down South Public Road.  There are several restaurants in old town, but they’re mostly Mexican joints and I didn’t have any hopes that they would have American brunch.  So the next place we visited was Canopy Grill.  It was even listed in a book on great Denver breakfast restaurants a few years back.  But when we got there, the waitress told us they stopped doing breakfast about a year ago.  So we settled for lunch.

Louisville has Huckleberry and a few coffee shops.  Broomfield has The Egg and I and a few hotel restaurants that serve breakfast buffet.  But we’ve been to all those.  I just can’t think of a single full service restaurant that serves American style breakfast food in Lafayette.  Are there any?  What do people in Lafayette do when they want to go out for breakfast?

Broomfield’s newest breakfast restaurant is “Bright -N- Early Breakfast” which just opened last week.  I went in for breaakfast on a snowy spring morning, and was the only patron.  The owner, Vince, said it’s been a bit of a slow start so far since he hasn’t done any real advertising yet; it’s just word-of-mouth.  Bright -N- Early Breakfast is really just a side room of Hot Shotz, in the strip mall just east of Target.

I didn’t really see a true menu per-se, but Vince said the special of the day was pancakes, eggs, and Canadian bacon.  That sounded good to me, so I went with that.  I did see another list of breakfast items, but I’m not sure if it was complete or not, and it didn’t have any prices.  But it included breakfast quesadillas, made-to-order omelets, danishes, breakfast burritos, and so on.

Don’t expect anything too fancy here.  The dining experience is similar to going for a big family reunion picnic or something.  The flatware is plastic, the plates are paper, and the tables are like those you’d find in a bar.  There are no napkins, just a roll of paper towels on each table.

But the food was good.  The pancakes were big and thick, and Vince offered to put cheese in my scrambled eggs, which I accepted.  All told, with a glass of milk, the breakfast came to $7.

Vince bought Hot Shotz from the previous owner last July, and has cleaned it up quite a bit.  I haven’t been there since that time, so I can’t speak for the hamburgers or hot wings or anything else.  But I plan to go back and try his Philly cheese steak sandwich, which he says is his best meal.

One nice touch was that the restaurant has free wi-fi.  You just have to ask for the password.  The owner wants to turn it into the kind of place where people come, have some hot breakfast, and hang out a while, which was exactly what I needed while waiting for my bus in a blizzard.

Hot Shotz and Bright -N- Early Breakfast
300 Nickel Street, Unit 1
Broomfield, CO 80020
303-460-0066