The secret is out about Beacon Cafe’s Sunday buffet for less than $20
The TikTok gods have smiled on Beacon Cafe, and suddenly everybody knows where to find a hotel-style brunch buffet in a small cafe for less than $20.
Upside: Finally, there’s a crowd now at the Beacon, an overachieving little backroad cafe at 12721 Business U.S. 287, off the U.S. 287 freeway in far northwest Tarrant County.
Downside: Now and then, there’s a line, particularly since TIkTok streamers discovered the Beacon bargain.
If you can’t make it out Saturday or Sunday, the Beacon will serve a Labor Day breakfast buffet from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For less then $20 — less than $15 for seniors — you get an omelet station, a pancake and waffle station, breakfast items, fruit, biscuits and cinnamon rolls.
For example, the other day the buffet offered:
• Eggs or omelets your way.
• Pancakes or french toast your way, including Beacon’s signature blueberry, pineapple or chocolate pancakes.
• Bacon, sausage, jalapeño-cheddar smoked sausage, tamale meatballs and spicy pork.
• Bechamel hash-brown casserole, chicken enchilada casserole and four-cheese macaroni-and-cheese.
• Blackberry cobbler, caramel-pecan bread pudding and biscuits.
• Fresh-cut farmers’ market fruits and juices.
Frankly, there’s so much crowded into this little cafe that you might not find it all at first. Look under every lid and in every tray, and don’t be shy to ask.
This is how the Beacon has served weekend brunch for more than 10 years across three locations.
But it’s only gained a following with the recent growth of neighborhoods near Haslet, Saginaw and Bonds Ranch.
Owner Christie Bingham moved her little cafe off the apron at the Hicks Field airport, where customers competed for parking with Cessnas.
At first, her Facebook videos almost pleaded for customers to drive out to the end of North Main Street and support Beacon back when U.S. 287 was a dusty highway to Wise County.
Now, the pastures have become housing subdivisions.
Beacon has become one of the most successful local independent restaurants in north Tarrant, holding its own in a fiercely competitive market up against standout national chains such as Black Bear Diner, Hash Kitchen and Urban Egg.
In 2022, Star-Telegram readers ranked Beacon one of the county’s five best brunches.
Bingham was originally known for her hamburgers and sandwiches at now-gone Christie’s Extreme Burgers in North Richland Hills. The Beacon continues to serve lunch specialties like her avocado-pepper-jack cheeseburger or Reuben on marble rye.
Bingham also sells her stellar blackberry or peach cobblers at farmers’ markets; watch the restaurant’s Facebook page.
The Beacon is usually open for breakfast and lunch Wednesdays through Sundays. The Labor Day breakfast buffet is a special; 817-809-8606, thebeaconcafe.com.
