Written by Sulema Lopez
Illustration by Madison Otten
Living in a small town like Brighton doesn’t leave many options for decent non-chain restaurants. Finding a good restaurant with home style cooking usually requires venturing into the ‘big city.’ Main Street Café has filled that gap with delicious home style breakfast and lunch options. With Google Reviews of 4.5 out of 5 stars speaking for the quality of the restaurant, you can’t pass on the opportunity to stop in the next time you’re in Brighton.
This small-town café, at first sight, left me suspicious of the quality of restaurant it could be, considering their lacking curb-side appeal. Being in one of the older brick buildings on Main Street and with a simple sunrise sign, it gave a type of old-timer vibe and the feeling that I would be dining with the Brighton Senior Center. I would find out that was not the case. Inside the small establishment, there is fresh paint and new modern flooring, along with modern light fixtures and chalkboard signs, which I may add has some amazing artwork.
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and therefore, I believe, requires a focused menu. Main Street Café delivers, with a small but traditional breakfast menu, from egg dishes, skillets, omelets, pancakes, waffles, French toast, and crepes. They also have two of my favorites included: chicken-fried steak and biscuits and gravy. Now if you’ve had a skillet at, let’s say, Village Inn before, I can say the skillets at Main Street Café blow them out of the water in flavor and portion size. Another thing that sets this small café’s menu apart is their option of fresh-squeezed orange juice, which you can purchase either by the glass or liter.
Main Street Café does not believe in small portions. At each visit, I was blown away with the portion sizes. When ordering the chicken-fried steak, the plate is like getting served on a small frying pan, loaded with home-style potatoes, diced chicken-fried steak, and topped with two eggs cooked to your liking. The spinach and bacon omelet stuns again with the portion size, looking like a six-egg omelet and loaded with home style potatoes.
The kid’s menu also does not come small. The mini pancake breakfast has nothing mini about it; the pancakes were easily adult size, and it comes with three of them. They also add what looked like two scrambled eggs and a sausage link. Another kid’s menu item is the smiley face breakfast; it looked like a Mickey Mouse silhouette with whip cream eyes and smile, one egg, and one sausage link. This pancake was also big enough to be an adult portion. In fairness, the kids French toast was an appropriate child-size meal. I came to a conclusion that, maybe, they just don’t do small pancakes.
After visiting Main Street Café a couple of times with a total of four people (two adults, two kids), I can say that they portion their food big but make their bills small. Each time, we had more than enough food, great service, and amazing taste. With my amazement that, each time, our totals were under $30. You cannot beat great quality for a low price.
My final grade for Main Street Café is an A. The small diner experience and modern indoor décor makes up for the simple and old-time curb side appeal. The quality of their food and good service make for a pleasant experience every time. I do recommend, however, as this spot has become popular with the locals, that you try to get in early to avoid a long wait in their extremely small waiting space.
Main Street Café
Location: 161 N Main St. Brighton, CO 80601
Hours: Mon-Sun 6 a.m.-2 p.m.
Cuisine: American/Tex Mex Breakfast and Lunch
Contact Info: (303) 278-7939
Overall Evaluation: A
