AllGood Cafe's Breakfast Is the Antidote to the Trendy Brunches of Dallas

Avocado toast. An egg-white omelet. A spinach-forward frittata.

These are sensible brunches, brunches that can be paired with a mimosa that’s heavy on the OJ and light on the bubbly. Brunches good for fueling a busy, productive day ahead.

Make no mistake about it: You can have a type-A brunch at AllGood Cafe. This Deep Ellum staple serves Greek yogurt with granola and seasonal berries along with the best of them. But it also serves the antithesis to yogurt and berries, the kind of rib-sticking, queso-covered foodstuffs that will make you question why you ever ate brunch anywhere else.

And that’s saying a lot for a restaurant that doesn’t even have brunch on the menu. Served daily from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., AllGood’s breakfast menu has all the breakfast and brunch classics, from migas ($8.99) to breakfast tacos ($7.99 to $8.99) to buttermilk pancakes ($3.99 to $6.99) so big and so fluffy, they warrant their own weather forecast.

The breakfast No. 1 ($8.99) is a great option for those looking for a traditional, diner-style start to the day. It's an autonomy-centric choice, providing diners with three protein options, a choice of carbs and an eggs-your-way flourish. We went for a big, fluffy cream biscuit, a square piece of heaven with a golden-brown top; a couple of sausage patties with crispy exteriors; and a side of grits that were done simply without cheese or scallions or any such accouterments. It was an honest brunch, good for working people and algae-growing sloth-persons alike. 

There’s also chicken-fried steak ($14.99), which has garnered its fair share of attention and notoriety since AllGood opened in 2000 (because it’s delicious). But tucked among all the breakfast and brunch favorites on AllGood’s menu is something very good, indeed: the borracho biscuit ($12.99). This king among men, this Everest among mountains, this cream of the mother-brunching crop, is a mighty fine biscuit, indeed.

First, AllGood takes a cream biscuit and splits it, creating two perfect foundations upon which to build a pillar of artery-snuggling goodness. Each biscuit half is topped with a sausage patty and over-easy egg before and covered in a pale yellow river of queso. Creamy but light and with a pleasant cheddar kick, this queso works perfectly in place of a more traditional sauce like pepper gravy or hollandaise.

The dish is made all the better by crispy, chewy pieces of super-smoky bacon, fresh bites of pico de gallo and some creamy avocado. Despite its many rich components, the dish is exceedingly palatable, thanks in large part to those fresh bites of tomato and cilantro and sharp, acidic accents from slices of pickled jalapeño. Truly, the borracho biscuit is a treasure of the Dallas brunch scene.

And what better drink to serve as a prelude/accompaniment/endcap than a michelada? You’ll want to maximize your time-to-michelada ratio when at AllGood Café; it's one of the finest in the city. This piquant, heat-forward concoction will leave your lips burning, thanks to the generous shake of tabasco that goes into the mix. The heat gives way to a fresh tomato flavor, a little acid and plenty of pepper, and all the while a bit of Modelo keeps things cool and refreshing. At $6, you could find a cheaper michelada, but we challenge you to find a better one.

AllGood Cafe, 2934 Main St. Breakfast and brunch served 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.