The Art of Brunch, Arizona Style
There are restaurants you go to because you need breakfast, and then there are restaurants that make breakfast feel like somewhere you were supposed to be. Prep & Pastry belongs to the latter.
In Arizona, mornings begin with the sun already climbing over the mountains, brunch has become something of a ritual in the foodie city of Tucson and the social community of Scottsdale. It is coffee before the heat arrives, a table crowded with friends, a Bloody Mary after a Saturday hike, or an excuse to turn a perfectly ordinary Tuesday into something worth remembering. And for more than a decade, Prep & Pastry has been making a pretty convincing case that breakfast deserves our attention.
The first Prep & Pastry opened in Tucson in 2014, becoming one of the restaurants that helped shape the Tucson’s now well-established brunch culture. Tucson Foodie has called it one of the first places that comes to mind for brunch in Tucson, pointing to its all-day brunch, cocktails, baked goods, and the mix of savory and sweet dishes that has made it a local favorite.
That reputation starts with a simple idea: make things well.
The menu is built around scratch-made food and high-quality ingredients, with locally sourced produce and products used whenever possible. There are familiar things—French toast, pancakes, biscuits and gravy, avocado toast—but Prep & Pastry has never seemed particularly interested in leaving familiar things alone. The Poblano Beni, for example, takes the eggs Benedict concept somewhere distinctly Southwestern, layering carnitas, roasted poblano and goat cheese hollandaise onto an herb-cheddar biscuit. The Sweet Potato Hash brings together poblano, asparagus, spinach, goat cheese mousse and eggs. Even the humble French toast gets a little Arizona sunshine, with versions ranging from macerated berries and candied almonds to lemon glaze and berry preserves.
And then there are the pastries.
Baked fresh daily and produced in limited quantities, they have become almost as much a part of the Prep & Pastry experience as the brunch itself. Tucson Foodie regularly highlights the restaurant’s baked goods among the things worth ordering, alongside favorites like the Chicken and Toast, Poblano Beni and Sweet Potato Hash.
Of course, no great brunch is complete without something cold in a glass.
Prep & Pastry has built a cocktail program to match the food, with creative mimosas and brunch drinks that have become part of the restaurant’s identity. It is the sort of place where ordering a cocktail at 10:30 in the morning somehow feels less like day drinking and more like participating in a longstanding Arizona tradition. Today, that tradition has three places to call home.
In Tucson, Prep & Pastry’s original Central location sits at 2660 N. Campbell Ave., near the University of Arizona. The Tucson East location at 6450 E. Grant Rd. brings the same scratch-made brunch, pastries and cocktails to the east side of town. Both Tucson restaurants are open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Then there is Scottsdale, where Prep & Pastry brought its particular brand of Tucson-born brunch to 7025 E. Via Soleri Dr., near Scottsdale Fashion Square. Open seven days with extended weekend hours, the Scottsdale restaurant has become a destination for breakfast and brunch in Old Town, pairing the familiar Prep & Pastry menu with a bright, contemporary setting and outdoor patio.
Maybe that is the real appeal of Prep & Pastry. We don’t treat breakfast as something you squeeze between everything else. We treat breakfast as the thing worth making time for. And in Arizona, where the desert is constantly reminding us to slow down, find some shade, order another coffee and stay awhile, that feels like a pretty good way to start the day.
