For early risers, or hungover afternoon wakers, Boulder is a great place to live when you're seeking sustenance to start your day. I know where I bring visiting friends and family: Lucile's, Snooze, Jill's at the St Julien. Those places earn their lines.
But those are also the spots you go when you have three hours to kill, don't mind fighting for parking, and are willing to wait for a table. That's not the experience I want every time I stumble out of bed hungry.
The spots below are Boulder's low-key breakfast joints. What they lack in downtown polish they make up for in short waits, fair prices, and food that keeps locals coming back for decades. Literally decades, in a couple of cases.
Walnut Cafe
The Walnut Cafe at 3073 Walnut Street (at 30th) has been the east Boulder standby for as long as most of us can remember. Weekday mornings from 7am you'll find contractors, professors, and cyclists all working through the same giant breakfast burritos and pie-for-breakfast energy. There's a second location too: South Side Walnut Cafe at 673 South Broadway, same kitchen DNA, usually the same happy chaos.
Lucky's Bakehouse Cafe
North Boulder's old Lucky's Cafe now goes by Lucky's Bakehouse Cafe, at 3980 Broadway in the same shopping center as Lucky's Market (which, yes, is still there). The cafe and the bakery merged into one operation, open daily 7am to 2pm. Come for the breakfast plates, leave with something from the pastry case you didn't plan on buying.
Moe's Broadway Bagel
People love to say you can't get a good bagel in Colorado. Moe's has been quietly disproving that since before this article existed, and there are now four Boulder locations: 2650 Broadway, 3075 Arapahoe, 3267 28th Street, and 637 South Broadway. Doors open at 5:30am every day, which makes Moe's the answer when you need breakfast before a sunrise hike.
The Buff
The Buff at 2600 Canyon Boulevard has been feeding Boulder for thirty years and runs daily from 7am to 2pm. It's exactly what a locally owned breakfast restaurant should be: big menu, fast coffee refills, zero pretension. If someone in your group wants pancakes and someone else wants a scramble buried in green chile, this is the compromise.
Village Coffee Shop
The Village Coffee Shop at 1605 Folsom is the real old-timer on this list, a proper diner that's been at it for more than 55 years. Food & Wine called it the best diner in Colorado, and Thrillist put its pancakes among the best in the country, but honestly the appeal is simpler than that: counter seats, fast service, and eggs that show up hot.
Tangerine
Tangerine at 2777 Iris Avenue has grown from a north Boulder brunch spot into a small Front Range institution, with siblings in Lafayette and Longmont. It's a repeat winner of local best-breakfast polls and one of the most reliable gluten-free breakfasts in town. Expect a wait on weekends; weekdays are the move.
Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse
Not a secret, but underused at breakfast: the Dushanbe Teahouse at 1770 13th Street serves weekend brunch Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 3pm, walk-in only. Eating eggs inside a hand-carved teahouse gifted by Boulder's sister city in Tajikistan beats waiting on a bench downtown.
Moxie Bread Co
For the grab-and-go crowd, Moxie Bread Co at 4593 Broadway in north Boulder mills its own heirloom grain on site and opens at 7:30am daily. A ham and cheese croissant from Moxie eaten in the car at a trailhead is a complete Boulder breakfast, no table required.
Pour one out for the ones we lost since this guide first ran: Marie's on Broadway closed in 2013 after 35 years, and Alfalfa's, along with its beloved hot bar, is gone too. Boulder breakfast moves on, but it doesn't forget.
