- Local
- Community
- Journalism
Support the independent voice of Dallas and help keep the future of Dallas Observer free.
“Behold,” she says as the plate drops. Lisette Stewart, who's worked at the Gold Rush for a couple of decades, has been pouring coffee and bouncing between tables with energy. This is a breakfast joint where you sit with a cup of coffee, hangover thumping in your skull, and people-watch before your egg pile arrives. Lasagna lives side by side on a menu (that's shaped like a vinyl record) with golden hash browns soaked in green salsa.
Let's talk about what in the world the John Wayne Breakfast is: It’s a meat painting. It's breakfast art. It doesn't matter why it's named after John Wayne because it's a flour tortilla topped with a crispy potato hash, smothered in red salsa, lightened by onions, run through with a sunny side up egg (give it a whack to let loose the golden yolk) and shredded cheddar, saddled up next to two slices of good, greasy bacon. Get extra tortillas and use them as utensils. I plucked at salsa, bright as a garden that’s brimming with cilantro and jalapeños, with tortillas and gripped bacon, and any hangover that lingered dissolved like cotton candy. It's a peaceful thunderstorm of a breakfast. You'll feel a wave of comfort at one of Dallas' oldest diners.
Gold Rush Cafe, 1913 Skillman St.
Keep the Dallas Observer Free... Since we started the Dallas Observer, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Dallas with no paywalls.