Everybody loves brunch. That means you can never have too many brunch spots in town — a good thing since Toronto has no shortage of delicious hot spots. But, nobody quite does it the way Campechano’s new location does it: Mexican style.
Just last week, Campechano Café opened at 374 Bathurst St., where Good Hombres once stood pre-pandemic. The space still holds the massive tortilla machine where the chips and masa are made for all the Campechano restaurants, though now it’s more than a mill and taqueria.
When Good Hombre closed, owner Daniel Roe and his partner Raena Fisher (the team behind knew they wanted to get into brunch. “Brunch is something that’s always been in the back of our minds,” Roe says. “We tried to do it with Campechano the first year we opened, for a couple weeks. But when you already have a restaurant going, it’s really difficult to also do brunch. So, we always just wanted to do a specific brunch place.”
Everything served at Campechano is masa-based, which is a nixtamalized corn. Campechano cooks and processes Heirloom corn from Mexico to make dough, which then turns into the tortillas that all three Campechano locations use.
At the new cafe, Campechano is using that dough to make small masa snacks called antojitos, which is common to have topped with eggs, making them a great brunch option. The café offers all types of antiojitos with eggs and salsas, including the sope, topped with black beans and avocado, and the ranchero, with guacamole and salsa roja.
Other menu items include hotcakes, made — of course — with corn masa and rhubarb compote, and a quesadilla with house-made quesillo and house-made sour cream.
What Roe says makes the cafe so special is that the menu is full of share plates. “It’s designed for you to order two or three things. They’re all like eight or nine dollars, so it’s cool and you get to try a couple of things.”
And, obviously you can’t have brunch without a round of fruity mimosas. Alongside the traditional one, guests can try a mimosa made with roasted pineapple juice.
Campechano Café is currently open with approximately 40 seats inside and an additional 30 on the back patio space.
