The Kolache Cafe (Mesa, AZ)

About every six months or so, I’ve been visiting my parents in Arizona, either to help them out, or as a short visit on the way to various backpacking trips. Near my parents house in Arizona is a former Arby’s that has held a good number of different small restaurants in its post-Arby’s existence. Until a few years ago, this was a semi-failing location of Dickey’s Barbecue, which is one of the poorer renditions of Texas Barbecue. But then Dickey’s closed, and the place reopened as a location of the Phoenix-area chain The Kolache Cafe, a bakery chain that specialized in another Texas-specific food: the Kolache.

If you’re not from central Texas, there’s a good chance that you’re now asking “What’s a kolache?”. Based originally on the Czech koláč (a semi-sweet bun with a sweet, fruity filling), Czech immigrants to Texas adapted this concept to the Texas market, making a variety of semi-sweet baked buns with different filling. In the Czech tradition, a koláč is sweet, and the similar klobásník is a savory, sausage-filled bun with essentially the same construction. In Texas, “Kolache” is now the catch-all term for both of these, and there are several well-known cafes and bakeries in Texas (mostly around the Czech-settled town of West, Texas) that serve almost nothing but Kolaches. Now, with Kolache Cafes in the Phoenix area, you can get these as well. So when I needed a quick breakfast, I headed over to The Kolache Cafe’s Alma School location.

At the front of the store is Kolache Cafe’s ordering case, and I’ll tell you now, the menu is basically “kolaches”. About fifteen varieties each of the traditional sweet flavors (lower shelf), and savory flavors (upper shelf). While I’m not against the sweet varieties, my cravings on my visits angled more towards the savory, so I ended up getting a sausage, cheese, and pepper kolache, and a brisket, mashed potato, cheese, and pepper kolache.

They offer to heat up your savory kolaches, which is a nice touch (although it’s done with a microwave, so they lost a little bit of the crustiness). But about a minute after ordering, I had my little tray of kolaches ready. I rather liked these; these are much like getting a proper Chinese bao, just a bit westernized.

First up, I tried the sausage and cheese kolache, a generous chunk of good smoked sausage, with a bit of cheese and jalapeno. Everything work here: a nice sausage with good texture and smoke notes, a good melted cheese, and just enough jalapeno to give it some kick.

Next up, a brisket, cheese, mashed potato, and jalapeno kolache. A good, nicely smoked brisket, some melted cheese, some mash, and a bit of jalapeno, this was similar to the sausage one, but honestly, I’ve give a bit of a preference to the sausage kolache: the mashed potatoes acted more like a buffer than a proper filling.

And as far as drinks… I don’t generally do sodas anymore (not as much into sweet drinks as I once wall), but The Kolache Cafe has a really tasty and refreshing Pineapple Cream Soda on tap. I’ll definitely be getting this again.

The Kolache Cafe (Mesa, AZ)

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