A little Fort Worth hole-in-the-wall cafe has $6 lunch, $1.25 tacos and lots of flavor
Day Break Cafe is the ultimate pandemic restaurant.
If rising prices are a worry, Day Break, 2720 White Settlement Road, has a daily lunch special with tea for $6.
Burgers and sandwiches cost $3-$4. A pancake breakfast with eggs and bacon costs less than $5.
Day Break opens at 5 a.m. and stays open until 4 p.m. for safer, less crowded dining off-hours.
And there’s a drive-thru window.
None of the food is the least bit fancy. It’s just inexpensive cooking in an industrial cafe, priced so customers can bring and feed the whole family.
For 26 years, owner Mario Garcia has worked the counter and window nearly every single day.
His goal: “I want someplace people can get a lunch or bring the family.”
“Sure, I could make a $10 burrito,” he said. (His cost $2.29, tacos $1.25.)
“But I don’t want a place where people just come once a month,” he said. “I want to see people every day, or every week.”
I’ve known Day Break customers to go twice a day. Or stop for breakfast and take home lunch or dinner.
It opened in 1993, and Garcia started in 1995.
Since then, I never remember a day when he wasn’t there.
During ice storms, he rolled burritos for the workers trying to restore power.
At the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, he handed sackfuls of lunches out the drive-thru window to West 7th workers in need.
Breakfast is the showcase meal.
“I like to get up early,” Garcia said. “I like to start the day early and finish early.”
The pancakes compare favorably to those as Fort Worth’s best short-order cafes.
The top-dollar breakfast item is a $6.89 sirloin steak-and-eggs or steak ranchero. Or choose a pork chop or chicken-fried steak.)
The lunches are basic grill cooking. Don’t expect anything elaborate.
The $6 lunch alternates on different days from enchiladas or tacos to spaghetti-and-meatballs. (Children’s plates cost about $3.)
The crowd is a mixture of solo diners squeezing into the booths up front, groups around the main dining tables and families in the cave-like back dining room.
(The building is 71 years old. It was originally a real estate and insurance office, and became a cafe in 1957.)
Even if you’re not on a budget, it’s a good stop for chilaquiles, pancakes-and-bacon, a cheeseburger or the soft or crispy tacos.
Day Break is open for breakfast and lunch daily; 817-335-0805, facebook.com/DayBreakCafeandGrill.
This story was originally published August 23, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
