In a tourist town at the beginning of tourist season, you take your hunger in your hands by assuming you’ll get a table during peak breakfast hours on the morning of your trip home. Surely, you think, if you arrive early enough there will be a table. But at Banff’s Tooloulou’s we find a line — a great sign for the food quality, but not for leaving on time.
It’s worth the wait. We don’t get a table outside — they instead place us inside by the front window where we can see patio diners enjoying the morning sun. But inside is cool — both the temperature and style — so we sit at our checker-table-clothed table and take a gander at the breakfast menu.
Clearly, as a 14-year veteran of Banff’s bustling food scene, locals know Tooloulou’s well, and line up early. It started when chef Steve Smythe brought “Cajun Creole-inspired flair alongside a touch of Canadian Rocky Mountain infusion” — along with over 100 hot sauces — to Banff.
But aside from Caesars, we aren’t in a spicy mood. So we get the Southern Comfort Benny, a chicken-fried steak on sweet, toasted cornbread with hollandaise sauce and a barbecue drizzle. It’s an open-faced sandwich, and calling it a “drizzle” is putting it lightly, but the ooey-gooey sauce stays just short of over-soaking the cornbread, making every bite consistently delicious. The Cajun Grill Cheese Deluxe is just as delectable, with cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, grilled onions, andouille sausage, tomatoes and pepper jelly on toasted bread.
Like any good bread-based breakfast, it’s a bit much — we might not sample the southern spices but we certainly receive southern portions. So we save leftovers for tomorrow’s breakfast and vow next time to go in the middle of the trip instead so we can enjoy another breakfast out in the Banff sun.
Tooloulou’s
204 Caribou Street, Banff | 403.762.2633 | tooloulous.com
