DINING

Daytime café serving classic Mexican breakfast food coming to Gulf Breeze early February

Brittany Misencik
Pensacola News Journal

The owners of Gulf Breeze taqueria Tacos Rock are opening an authentic, Mexican daytime eatery a couple doors down focused on serving up Mexican-styled breakfast foods.

Co-owner Byanka Ramirez said the idea started when she and her husband and co-owner, Hector Chavez, expanded Taco Rock into a larger space at 913 Gulf Breeze Parkway, Unit 20. The two then decided to repurpose the former Taco Rock at 911 Gulf Breeze Parkway, Unit B, into a new restaurant concept called Buenos Dias Café. Ramirez said she expects the new Mexican eatery to open in early February.

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While Taco Rock is primarily a lunch and dinner destination, Buenos Dias Café will be a daytime café open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. with both dine-in and carry-out options.

Ramirez said she has noticed the lack of variety in Gulf Breeze for an authentic Mexican breakfast or coffee. She and her husband wanted to take the opportunity to bring a traditional option to the area.

"The plates we're going to be serving ... I don't think anybody has them in any Mexican restaurant, like chilaquiles, enchiladas suizas and enchiladas veracruzanas, little things like that. It's just totally different from other restaurants," Ramirez said.

Chef Luis Vilchis and co-owner Hector Chavez prepare to open a new Mexican-style breakfast restaurant called Buenos Dias Café on Wednesday. The new Gulf Breeze eatery will begin serving the breakfast crowd in early February.

The dishes are geared to be traditional in taste and flavor with the menu divided up into different breakfast and brunch Mexican dishes. One of the main breakfast categories being varieties of molletes, open faced bolillo bread covered with beans and Monterey jack melted cheese with the option of meats. Other options include egg plates and omelets, as well as lighter fare like yogurt parfaits and fruit.

Some of the more brunch-focused options include enchiladas, sandwiches, burritos and chilaquiles, or fried corn tortilla pieces cooked with salsa and topped with queso fresco, sour cream, red onion and cilantro.

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Both businesses are based off Ramirez's and her husband's experiences growing up in Mexico, specifically Mexico City and Nogales. Now the two work to replicate the dishes they grew up eating, with Ramirez managing the front of house and Chavez heading the kitchen.

While her husband primarily will be hands-on in the kitchen, the two hired a chef from Mexico, Luis Felipe, to take the lead on the cooking for Buenos Dias.

Some of Ramirez's favorite dishes are on the menu, such as the chilaquiles and the Mexican sweet bread, which are some of her go-to orders whenever she travels to Mexico. There is also nothing like Mexican coffee, she added.

"It's going to be a little different, like for example, café de olla, it's a coffee that is made in a pot with brown sugar and cinnamon sticks," she said. "Also café con leche, which is warm milk with the coffee."

The café will reflect Mexico even down to the interior, with the majority of decorations sourced originally from Mexico.

"I think it's going to be more like a pueblo feel, like if you're eating inside a little Mexican breakfast store. You know, you're going to have those earth colors and then different decorations that I brought from Mexico," she said. "I just went to Mexico in December; we drove there, and we brought quite a few things to decorate the restaurant with. It's going to be a little bit like a Mexican café kind of feel."

She said many people have already responded with excitement to the new business on social media and she looks forward to sharing the food she loves with her customers.