ATXReview
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Joe's Bakery & Coffee Shop
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The family-run Joe's Bakery & Coffee Shop is an East Side staple that’s been around since 1962. If you’ve never been, or it’s been a while, you should immediately make plans to go. Now that you’ve done that, great. More about Joe’s: It’s a breakfast and lunch spot that’s basically a Tex-Mex/Mexican diner with a counter and booths, and a jukebox playing Tejano jams in the background. There are dishes like pancakes, huevos ranchero, crispy tacos, and enchiladas. The breakfast is phenomenal and served all day—which is why there’s often a wait on weekends, when the place is filled with East Side regulars, UT kids, construction workers, city officials, and families after church on Sundays.
People are waiting for the breakfast tacos made with fluffy house-made flour tortillas, especially the miga taco con todo, which adds in pico de gallo to their excellent migas taco. The super-crispy bacon at Joe’s defies the laws of pork belly physics—either order it as a side or add it to your breakfast taco, where it’ll hang out on top like the tortilla is a hammock that’s too small. And don’t miss the carne guisada. Here it's made with pork, with meat so tender that it rivals anything a fancy French restaurant is braising. Joe’s is also a bakery with a huge variety of pan dulce—make sure to get some pink cake and conchas on the way out.
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Food Rundown
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Migas
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Breakfast Tacos
photo credit: Richard Casteel
Bacon
photo credit: Richard Casteel