Love for the Locals: Zocalo

After another long hiatus, I am back! A lot of changes have happened over the past several months - after bouncing around between contract jobs, I eventually landed permanent position and moved into my own apartment, closer to Edmonton's great food scene, of course! I hope to update more often as my furnishing and decor becomes more complete.

Last weekend, P and I visited a cafe in Little Italy for breakfast called Zocalo (10826-95 Street). It's a quaint, little cafe situated inside a culinary-themed gift shop married with a greenhouse. You order in the shop, and can enjoy your sips and noms in the shop or the greenhouse!

Zocalo from the outside of the gift shop!

Zocalo from outside of the greenhouse! You can see the long wooden table and some bistro tables inside!

The cafe situated inside the gift shop!

Our breakfast spread! P's latte, my rooibos tea, a mocha almond tart, bagel with lox, and cranberry scone! It was a perfect balance, especially with the bite of dark chocolate for a finish :)

Despite the rain outside, the greenhouse was so bright and open, so that was where we sat to enjoy our breakfast. Not to mention, the light was great for photos, even with my phone!

Earlier on, I had said to P that I was feeling peckish, but not in the mood for a full-on breakfast complete with toast, eggs, and hashbrowns. Our choices at Zocalo just hit the spot. The tea was typical of the Mighty Leaf (which P said lost a good opportunity for a punny name, claiming that "the Mightea Leaf" would have been better), but smooth and enjoyable nonetheless. The bagel with lox, capers, and cream cheese offered the perfect savoury note for our meal, with just enough but not too much cream cheese, and a good amount of lox. The scone was a bit denser than I am used to, and seemed more like a cake in scone form to me, but the sweetness was well-balanced. The same goes for the mocha almond tart. Marzipan or almond paste tends to be rather sugary, but the mocha and dark chocolate were a great offset, not to mention it went great with my tea.

I have a pretty good feeling that we'll be back!

If you do decide to visit Zocalo, which you most definitely should, you also ought to visit the Spinelli Italian Centre Shop just a block away! I have to say that it has one of my preferred delicatessens in the city. I got some corned beef pastrami and a few slices of Gruyere Swiss to go with the loaf of fresh rye that P brought me - yum!

-M