Few savory morning foods elicit the kind of elation that eggs, cheese and meat tucked into a tortilla can provide. While Orange County has a bevy of breakfast burritos, a smaller specimen warrants your attention: Heritage Barbecue’s Texas-style breakfast taco available at True Love Coffee Co. in San Juan Capistrano
A staple of Texas mornings, breakfast tacos have deep roots in San Antonio and the Lone Star State’s southern reaches. (Despite published claims to the contrary, the Tex-Mex conception of “breakfast tacos” did not originate in Austin; and eating tacos for breakfast has a far longer history in Mexico.) They typically feature a soft flour tortilla folded around a few or a slew of fillings like scrambled eggs, bacon, chorizo, potatoes and/or cheese, for example. Generally smaller than a breakfast burrito, the taco is folded around its contents rather than rolled into a tightly sealed parcel. Voilà, a taco fit for the forenoon hours.
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Heritage’s version at the cafe comes with a decent helping of the Central Texas-style barbecue joint’s brisket, fluffy eggs and a slip of cheese. The brisket is smoked for 12-14 hours over California white oak, a considerable amount of work before the meat makes it to breakfast time.
Said brisket offers a smokiness I didn’t know I needed in my morning fare. The combination keeps the ingredient list short and gives the tender beef top billing. And while the taco doesn’t have the girth of Orange County’s more imposing breakfast burritos, a morning feast needn’t always be the size of a forearm to grab your attention especially with this brisket involved.
Let this be a Bat Signal for more breakfast tacos in Orange County. Perhaps from a dedicated breakfast taco spot, like HomeState, which, at one point, was slated to open in Old Towne.
Word to the wise: These breakfast tacos ($7 a pop) are available only Wednesday through Sunday. Do come sooner rather than later; a True Love Coffee Co. employee said that these tacos tend to sell out by mid- to late-morning.
Find it: True Love Coffee Co., 32122 Camino Capistrano, Suite 100, San Juan Capistrano, truelovecoffee.com
