Brunch spot Sabrosa Cafe now serving
Maybe the newly sunny-yellow exterior will make you think of scrambled eggs, or butter on toast. Fitting, because Sabrosa Cafe & Gallery in Bay View now is serving breakfast, lunch and brunch.
Sabrosa, 3216 S. Howell Ave., officially opened this week with veteran chef Frank Sanchez at the helm and Sam Whalen, formerly of Centro Cafe in Riverwest, as sous chef.
Sanchez, known for his family's Taqueria Azteca restaurant on Oklahoma Ave., owns and operates Sabrosa with his partner, Florentine Opera Company pianist Ruben Piirainen.
Sabrosa serves weekday breakfast and lunch and weekend brunch, the newest in a series of restaurants focused on brunch but the only of its sort in the Bay View neighborhood.
It's open from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekends, serving breakfast and lunch plates the entire time.
One is the Avocado Smash-Up, avocado on toast with sunflower sprouts, radish, grilled cherry tomato and two poached eggs. Another is the SBSBBS: spicy brown sugar bourbon bacon sandwich, with fried egg and cheese on toast.
The menu also lists scrambles like the Herbivore ($11), with herbs and kale and other vegetables, queso fresco and avocado crema, and omelets, including what's called the Perfect Omelet: a cheese blend with optional ham.
Griddled items include sausage buttermilk pancakes and a plate called Frankie's Benediction: French toast made made from the house bread that's layered with ham, two sunny-side up eggs and Dijon hollandaise sauce. The Mexican breakfasts include house-made chorizo scrambled with eggs and served with black beans and flour tortillas.
Lunch items include sandwiches such as the Ruben (not Reuben): roasted vegetables with melted mozzarella and spicy lime mayonnaise. Other plates include enchiladas verdes filled with chicken breast.
Later next week, Sanchez expects to start offering sopa Azteca, the popular spicy tortilla soup from his family's late restaurant.
Besides bread, Sanchez also is baking sweets such as cinnamon rolls, scones and butter crunch cake.
Prices are mostly $8 to $15 for main dishes.
Sabrosa serves coffee, tea, juice, wine and beer, and it mixes brunch cocktails, including a Bloody Mary shaken with chile ice cubes, and the Morning Glory, vodka, bubbly, lime juice and frozen cubes of mango and orange juices.
Sanchez has been selling a line of Mexican sauces called Sabrosa, made at the Howell Ave. building. (Its commercial kitchen is rented by food trucks and other small businesses.) The sauces now are being sold at the cafe.
The cafe's gallery is featuring work by Milwaukee photographer Timothy Abler, and Piirainen is playing classical music at the gallery's baby grand piano most days, Sanchez said.
Sabrosa accepts reservations for four or more; to contact, (312) 834-1929. The largest party the cafe can seat on weekends is eight, Sanchez said.
The cafe is online at sabrosa.cafe and on Facebook.
