The couple behind La Chingada, Cruda and The Neighborhood has opened a new brunch spot, Real Good Brunch Co., where the food is made with fresh, clean ingredients.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

With a meal that important, you deserve to have more than just bland cereal in a bowl.

Sweet blueberry pancakes drizzled in syrup, spicy chorizo and scrambled eggs wrapped in a giant flour tortilla, and golden flaky croissants filled with chocolate are a much better way to wake up, giving you the strength to power through the day.

Luckily, Jessica and Daniel Cordova believe in the same thing.

For two years, the couple has been working on Real Good Brunch Co., a new breakfast spot located atย 1310 S. Alvernon Wayย where the food is made from scratch, incorporating real and fresh ingredients into the dishes.

The new brunch spot isnโ€™t the coupleโ€™s first rodeo. They are also the masterminds behind Tucson favoritesย La Chingada, Cruda and The Neighborhood, but this time they're doing a total 180 from the usual shrimp and quesabirria tacos they are known for.

โ€œBreakfast is one of our favorite meals of the day,โ€ Jessica said. โ€œWe're like, OK, we have a bar, we have a Mexican restaurant and we have seafood restaurant, should we try brunch?โ€

Jessica and Daniel Cordova have been working on opening their new brunch spot for two years.ย 

The coupleโ€™s other ventures are known for their colorful, vivid atmospheres and Real Good Brunch Co. is no exception. Mint green dรฉcor covers the restaurant, making the eatery feel like spring. Lattice hangs on the walls and the shaded outdoor patio is surrounded by fresh flowers.

They even have bright, catchy signs that readย โ€œearly bird gets the wormโ€ and โ€œbrunch is always a good idea.โ€

โ€œWe love the word early bird,โ€ Jessica said. โ€œThat said, we're kind of going toward the little-bird-gets-the-worm type look.โ€

When it comes to the food, Jessica wanted to create something that features healthy ingredients, stressing the importance of fresh, homemade items. Her menu focuses on scratch-made food, avoiding seed oils to whip up all the classic breakfast dishes.

โ€œThe style of cooking that I'm doing here is what I would feed my family: good ingredients, good quality and more from scratch,โ€ Jessica said.

Jessica has been cooking all her life, taking a few culinary classes a couple years back. With her love of cooking, she wanted to take on a new challenge with this venture: making sourdough bread fresh every day.

She began her journey with sourdough back in October, learning the ins and outs of mastering the picky recipe. Her fresh sourdough is seen throughout the menu, including it in pancakes and pastries.

Her homemade sourdough is also the main ingredient in the French toast, which comes with organic maple syrup and fruit.

The four squares of French toast are topped with powdered sugar and a little bit of granulated sugar to add some subtle sweetness. The toast is light, fluffy and not too eggy or moist in the middle, which is how I prefer my French toast.

Aside from the French toast, the menu also includes breakfast classics like omelets made with cage-free eggs, biscuits and gravy, chorizo and potato burritos, a variety of pancake flavors including birthday cake, and all kinds of sandwiches and toasts featuring avocado and smoked salmon.

Another one of the menu standouts are their fresh-squeezed lemonades. When attending a bar and restaurant expo, the couple saw the Zumex juicer, inspiring them to feature fresh-squeezed juices to the menu.

โ€œWe were just amazed by it,โ€ Jessica said. โ€œIf you go to the grocery store or order from the different distributors, you look at the ingredients and there are so many different additives. Thatโ€™s what inspired us to do the freshly-squeezed juice.โ€

At Real Good Brunch Co., you can choose from strawberry, blueberry or classic lemonades to add a refreshing kick to your breakfast.

Real Good Brunch offers freshly squeezed juices, including strawberry, blueberry and classic lemonades.

The strawberry lemonade comes in a mason jar with a sugar rim, garnished with a whole strawberry and a mint leaf. Finely-chopped pieces of strawberry float in the glass, adding even more flavor to the light-pink drink.

The tart lemonade mixed with the sweetness of the strawberries and the coolness of the mint was like a flavor explosion. It truly is the perfect refreshing drink to have after battling the 90-degree weather.

After receiving positive feedback during their soft opening, Real Good Brunch Co. officially opened its doors on May 10, open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, making sure customersโ€™ most important meal of the day is both healthy and delicious.ย 


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Jamie Donnelly is the food writer for #ThisIsTucson. Contact her via e-mail at jdonnelly@tucson.com