Making it look simple

Deli-Cious Z’s conquers the Benedict

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A Mountain Benedict from Deli-Cious Z's in Lafayette

couple of months ago, Boulder Weekly’s John Lehndorff used his Nibbles column to note Lafayette’s burgeoning food scene. Heeding the sage food writer’s words, I’ve been getting acquainted with some of the new kids on Lafayette’s culinary block.

I’m happy to report that the boom looks like it’s worth some hype.

Joining the mix of new eats in Lafayette is Deli-Cious Z’s, a breakfast and lunch joint situated right next to Ras Kassa’s new digs on South Public Road. Though the restaurant just got started this spring, it doesn’t feel like Deli-Cious Z’s has many — if any — kinks to work out. The order-at-the-counter eatery offers a menu of tried and true breakfast and lunch favorites, not to mention that case full of fresh pastries, doughnuts, muffins and cookies. Grab a number, pour yourself a fresh cup of Kona coffee and have a seat. The easterly facing dining room is drenched in sunlight throughout business hours (6 a.m.-3 p.m., seven days a week), so prepare to eat in luminous bliss.

Z’s menu homes in on classic American dishes for both breakfast and lunch, but it was the comfort of a luscious breakfast at the close of a long and delightful weekend that begat this maiden voyage to Z’s.

Z’s covers the bases on breakfast fare: omelets, French toast, steak and eggs, chicken and waffles, bagel sandwiches, burritos and — the undisputed world champ in hangover relief — eggs Benedict.

The café offers up two versions of the classic: the Sunrise Benedict (poached eggs atop a halved English muffin, with fresh grilled turkey, cheddar cheese and avocado, all appropriately slathered in hollandaise sauce), or the Mountain Benedict, the more traditional style, replacing grilled turkey with Canadian and American bacon, hold the cheddar and avocado, ample Hollandaise.

Both come, gloriously, with home-style potatoes.

Hollandaise sauce has a reputation for being difficult to make, but it’s perhaps better described as delicate. It takes a little patience (and practice) to get the kind of silky-smooth, lemon-tart sauce you get at Z’s. (Keep an ice cube nearby as you’re heating the egg yolks over simmering water: if the yolks begin to separate, whisk the cube in to save the sauce. Also, don’t breath heavily over the sauce or let it smell your fear — rookie mistakes!)

Poached eggs can be kind of tricky sometimes, too. You’ve got to remember to put some vinegar in the water before you bring it to just below boiling. Somehow, none of your spoons ever feel appropriate for the job of fishing the egg out.

If eating eggs Benedict is a reward for getting inebriated the night before, then cooking an order must be the punishment.

Not to be outshone at Z’s are the breakfast potatoes: tender and soft on the inside, lightly crispy on the outside, seasoned just-so with garlic and a bit of salt.

For around 30 cents more, you can add a doughnut to a breakfast entrée. If you submit to the temptation, you won’t be disappointed. Well, maybe in yourself, but not in the doughnut.

Deli-Cious Z’s. 802 S. Public Road, Lafayette, 303-862-8487.