Cafe Brasil
Cocota is toasted white flour let down with milk and cut with Tabasco and Worcestershire, poured over two soft poached eggs. It came off Joao and Claudia's grandmother and it is the reason to stop on Mission Street.
Why go
A toasted-flour sauce is a technique most breakfast rooms have never heard of, and this one prints the recipe on its own menu: toasted white flour w/Tabasco sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt & milk,
over two soft poached eggs with a baguette and fruit alongside. There is a vegetable version with spinach and mushrooms under the same sauce. Joao and Claudia's own account puts the dish where it came from: This heritage brought family recipes to some of the most requested dishes like the 'Cocota,' a grandmother recipe.
The room follows the same line, hung with work by Brazilian artists and native Brazilian communities, with Brazilian music running all day.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the Cocota. Then Beef a Cavalo, or the Marinheiro omelette with shrimp and spinach under hollandaise.2
- Avoid: planning dinner here. It is a breakfast and lunch room and it closes in the afternoon.
What locals & experts say
- Joao and Claudia, on where the cooking comes from: the interest came early,
while Joao and Claudia grew in the kitchen watching and helping their mothers, who were great cooks.
1 - The record is thin here. No bylined review was read this pass, and everything above is the restaurant's own.
Good to know
- Timing: breakfast and lunch only.
- The menu: past the Cocota and a handful of Brazilian plates, most of the list is a Santa Cruz breakfast menu with Portuguese names on it. Order accordingly.
- Getting there: Mission Street on the way out toward the Westside, not the downtown grid.
Verdict
could-visit — One dish carries this room and it is worth the stop on its own: Cocota, a sauce of toasted white flour let down with milk and cut with Tabasco and Worcestershire, poured over two soft poached eggs, and it came off Joao and Claudia's grandmother. The walls carry Brazilian artists and native-community work and the music runs all day. The rest of the menu is a Santa Cruz breakfast list with Brazilian names on it, which is why this sits at could-visit rather than higher.