Featured Rideout A Sunday Morning Ride To A Favorite Breakfast Joint - Almost Felt Pre-covid

Just up the road from Tucson about 30 miles lies the little town of Oracle which is home to one of our favorite breakfast restaurants--the Oracle Patio Cafe & Market. This place is a regular choice for breakfast when we're doing our Sunday morning group ride. But our group rides are on hiatus thanks to the pandemic.

Today Mr. Sandi and I rode up to Oracle, just the two of us, and had a lovely morning of riding, eating, and relaxing on the patio. Breakfast is currently only being served outdoors thanks to COVID. But the patio is where we usually choose to eat anyway because it's such a lovely spot. There's an independent motorcycle repair shop right next door and the owner lets us park in front on Sundays since he's closed that day.


The Oracle Patio Cafe used to be an old house so the interior is composed of little rooms. In the winter when our group ride stops for breakfast here, we call ahead and they set up a big table for us in one of the back rooms. There's a cool little market with local produce and products in the front of the place and they also make great scones, coconut macaroons, and PIES! I usually eat one of their scones with my breakfast but today I got one "to go" to save for a treat tomorrow.


On the left side of this daily specials board, everything from Key Lime on down is pie. For my "to go" scone this morning I chose the strawberry banana version. For a very small town, the food here is quite upscale and most everything is homemade. And absolutely delicious!


Because of COVID, customers were being asked to go around the side rather than get to the patio though the restaurant. Even so, the staff still made us feel as welcome as ever. And they were all wearing masks. As were we--until we ate, of course.


The town of Oracle is about 2,000 ft. higher in elevation than Tucson so it's always cooler there than where we live. So even when the temperatures in Tucson are scorching, the patio here is nearly always quite comfortable. In the winter it's actually too cold to sit outdoors so we always elect to eat inside. Typically on Sunday mornings there's a musician who sings and plays guitar but unfortunately, again thanks to COVID, that's not happening. But were glad to see enough customers that it seems this restaurant will make it though the pandemic--hopefully.


The Oracle Patio Cafe is known for its pies. I've always gotten a chuckle out of the servers tee shirts.


For breakfast today I had the green chili, corn, tomato, and pepper jack quiche. And BACON!! Mr. Sandi ordered their chili relleno with eggs and potatoes. The food was terrific--as good or even better than ever! They have great coffee, too. They've always served the food and drink with nice serving ware but now they're using paper plates and cups (yeah, COVID).




Today's ride was a simple out and back. Usually we continue on after breakfast and take a beautiful hilly and twisty road that's on the back side of Mt. Lemmon which adds probably another 25-30 miles or so. But I'm still slowly working my mileage back up after being off my bikes for seven months so we (well, I) elected to leave off the extra dog leg on this day's ride. Today was my longest day back in the saddle since my first ride back two weeks ago. It feels SO GREAT to be riding again!!!!!


Tucked safely back in the garage--66 miles on the day. A far cry from the back to back 500+ mile days we did just one year ago on our Sturgis trip. But you know what? Never again will I take ANY miles for granted. I feel grateful and blessed to be able to hop on my Speed Triple and hit the road with my hubby on a leisurely Sunday morning.


I'm going to add a few more photos in second post in this thread. There are these fun metal sculptures made by two local artists that are scattered around the patio. They definitely add to the charm of this space.

 

There are two metal artists that live in Oracle and display some of their work. It's all for sale so we never quite know what metal "creatures" will be living on the patio when we show up for breakfast. Here's todays menagerie.













Not a creature but a lovely little rock fountain....

 

I'm so glad you're enjoying my posts and photos, Octoberon! I enjoy sharing stories and pics.

You are so right about no road going on forever. I was thinking about just that yesterday during our ride. This has been such a difficult and painful year for so many people. Many have lost loved ones and friends, jobs, homes, health.

As cruddy as 2020 has been, truly realizing that no road goes on forever has been this years silver lining for me. I've gained more perspective. This year has knocked me in the head with these reminders: To be grateful each day for the things that I have vs. regrets for what I don't. To understand that each day is a gift to be lived mindfully. To appreciate the beauty of good memories. The value of ones health--physical and mental. And most of all, to cherish loved ones and friends in word and deed during the time we have together on this planet. "No road goes on forever". That's a good reminder mantra, Octoberon. Thank you.

 

Thanks, Don! You know, I've never been up (or down) the unpaved back road on Lemmon. I've friends who mountain bike it, some who do it on their ADV motorcycles, and a couple buddies who Jeep it. I'm sure it's gorgeous! Did you know there's now a zip line up there?! Although I love zip lines and have done them, I've not (yet) done the one near Oracle on the backside of Lemmon. But a riding buddy did it with his wife and loved it.

 

That is a gorgeous blue sky, steve! Glad you got some sun. I try to never take our for granted, even when it's 107º F.

Very interesting that this area is where the famous (or infamous) Mods and Rockers frays took place. I've also been fascinated by that history. I enjoyed learning about that Rockers history when I was drawn to cafe racers in my early years of riding.

 

Well, at least you didn't go out for a ride without your jacket, Bikerman. ATGATT and safety first!

Glad you're continuing to enjoy my rideout reports. I do enjoy sharing them and think that in some way, sharing my rides and accompanying experiences with others helps me appreciate them even more.

 

Did you have some bacon with your lunch, brown mouse?!

 

This morning we rode up to Catalina for breakfast again this time joined by four riding buddies. It felt good to ride with a group again. We ate at the same place that Mr. Sandi and I ate at last week, the Oracle Patio Cafe. The owners and staff are so delightful and are rolling with the punches keeping a restaurant afloat during a pandemic. They are still not seating anyone indoors so all patrons are outdoors on the patio. There was one other motorcycle group there when we arrived along with a couple of two tops, but overall it was fairly quiet. Here's our group--minus one who was called home by his wife to help attend to a canine emergency.



This "trailer" was sitting about a half block from the restaurant. Pretty unique and creative! And, hey, @Duckadiledundee, based on your posts about your helmet search and helmet size, this one may do the trick!


Here's one of our good friends and favorite riding buddies sporting his Notorious RBG face mask. For those of you who may not have heard of RBG, that's Ruth Bader Ginsburg, U.S. Supreme Court Justice.



After breakfast we added the extra dogleg that I mentioned last week. This loop adds about 20 miles to our total ride which today wound up being about 80 miles. My longest ride since my bicycle accident and, for now, long enough. I had to draw a line on the road that is the most fun part of this loop because it's a twisty, hilly little two lane back road with hardly any traffic that doesn’t even show up on Google Maps. Today we didn't see even one car on this stretch!

 

Thanks, @Don the Don! I know some of these places around Tucson are familiar to you and bring back memories of Arizona. So you might also like a thread I started yesterday with pics from a ride I did Saturday up to Catalina State Park. It's in the "Rideout, Trackdays, Touring, and Spotted" Forum. Enjoy!

 

Thanks, @Bikerman! You are so right--there's just not much of anything that's better than a great ride out with great friends. Even with all that's going on in the world these days, life is good.