Las Vegas Weekly

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Babycakes Cafe is the newest busy breakfast restaurant in a neighborhood with several busy breakfast restaurants. Within a few miles of its tiny location in a tiny strip mall at Buffalo and Smoke Ranch, you’ll find weekend crowds at Bagel Cafe, Shari’s Diner and Omelet House Summerlin, and brunch abounds at the even closer Marche Bacchus and Garfield’s.

How can we explain this phenomenon? Is Desert Shores the breakfast capital of Las Vegas? My research leads me to cite StuffWhitePeopleLike.com, No. 36, which states: “To a white person, there is no better way to spend a Saturday morning than to get up late … and pile into your Audi or Volvo and drive to one of these little places and eat breakfast with friends. Often times these breakfasts last for an hour or more, hence the long lines and wait times.” There you have it.

Moving away from issues of suburban demographics and morning cuisine, it should be noted that Babycakes’ food is good enough to wait a few minutes. Pancakes are in the spotlight. An ordinary short stack is just fine, buttery and spongy, but all the attention is going to specialties like red velvet pancakes, served with a viscous cream cheese syrup, bacon pancakes, or s’mores, which have chocolate chips and marshmallows mixed into the batter and graham crackers crumbled on top. There are crepes, too, with lemon and ricotta, or Nutella and almonds.

I prefer the savory options, like decent huevos rancheros and a Mexican omelet loaded with jalapeños, carnitas and pepper jack cheese. Rick’s Adobo Fried Rice claims to be a Filipino dish, sort of an omelet with chicken and green onions, and there’s Loco Moco (hamburger, eggs and gravy over rice) and Kalua Pig Benedict (with shredded pork and cabbage topping eggs and English muffins) for other local islanders. I think white people will like this stuff, too.

Babycakes Cafe is different enough to notch its own niche in the Summerlin breakfast world, and the people are super nice. If you don’t wanna wait in the morning, come back at lunchtime when the full menu is still available.