City Market

A café & bakehouse filled with scratch-made eats

I'm over Panera. The soups are tasty, but for the past couple years I've had nothing but mediocre salads and obviously-microwaved panini with my you-pick-two. Enter City Market. City Market isn't new – it was founded in 1995. But it took me a while to discover and appreciate it for being a sort of Milwaukee-made Panera — and isn't eating locally-made café favorites and baked goods just the best?

On New Year's Day, Adam and I and our duo of couch-crashers woke up starving, despite two 3am oven pizzas. We knew everyone in the city would have the same idea: brunch. So instead of fighting the crowds at a sit-down restaurant, our group trooped over to City Market in Shorewood (there are two other locations: Wauwatosa near the hospital and Whitefish Bay). We all ordered the Morning Egg Wrap because, let's face it, after a night of champagne and cocktails and beer (oh my!), all you really want is a sloppy breakfast burrito. 

The Morning Egg Wrap is stuffed with scrambled eggs, guac, pepper jack cheese, brown rice, black beans, sweet potatoes, jalapeno lime vinaigrette, and salsa. It's good, but not very sloppy. And not life-altering like Café Corazon (drool). But good. You can get it with fruit or potatoes — which, the potatoes are so delicious and served with a super-yummy dipping sauce that has me salivating. 

Next time, I think I'll try the Sunrise Sandwich: fried egg, caramelized onion, pepper jack cheese, pepper jelly, agave nectar, and bacon or sausage on toasted raisin walnut bread. Yum. Speaking of bread: City Market is the place to go for fresh-made breads. Here's a not-so-secret tip: For the last hour of each day, breads and select bakery items are half-price. Such a great deal!

City Market is also a destination for sweet treats — or at least it should be. The cookies are amazing (lemonade cookies for the win!) and they have this cookie dough brownie situation that's mega-yum. There's such a wonderful array of desserts that I just want to eat my way through the entire pastry case. Oh, but there are healthy options too. Because we care about healthy options in 2016. Well, sometimes.