Breakfast and Coffee in St. Cloud: Brunch Rooms, Craft Lattes and BBQ at Dawn
A chef-led brunch room, a family craft coffee shop, two Colombian bakeries and a barbecue joint famous for breakfast: how St. Cloud starts its day.
3 minute read
St. Cloud is a morning town. The lakefront path fills at sunrise, the boat ramp opens before the coffee does, and downtown’s kitchens have quietly built one of the better small-town breakfast scenes in greater Orlando — a chef-led brunch room in a 1927 hotel, a family craft coffee shop, a Colombian bakery case, and a barbecue joint whose breakfast has its own congregation. Here is how the town starts its day.
The brunch anchor: Loading… Gastrobrunch
At 1023 New York Ave, inside the Hunter Arms Hotel, Loading… Gastrobrunch is the headline: brunch served daily, built on the classics and then bent — chicken and waffle tacos, Cinni-bun French toast, egg dishes the menu itself files under “boring” to make room for the interesting ones. The front patio on New York Avenue is the downtown morning seat. Our full profile covers the room and the remarkable building around it; for a first St. Cloud breakfast, this is the one to build around.
The coffee: Madilynn’s Craft Coffee Shop
A block away at 1022 10th St, Madilynn’s Craft Coffee Shop is the family-owned, family-run coffee bar downtown was missing — a small shop built, in its owners’ words, to bring their passion for coffee to the community. The signature drinks run creative: a Gold Rush latte, a lavender and honey iced latte, lavender matcha, bourbon cold brew, and a rotating cast of seasonal specials, with fresh pastries — the sourdough cinnamon muffin gets mentioned by name, often — arriving through the week. It is the natural second stop after brunch, or the first stop before the lakefront: grab a cup and walk two blocks north to the water.
Breakfast with smoke on it: Fat Boy’s
Out on 13th Street, Fat Boy’s Bar-B-Q (2912 13th St) has served St. Cloud since 1982, and locals will tell you its breakfast rivals its barbecue — Pig Omelettes, the Big Boss Breakfast, and a dining room that fills early with the town’s regulars. It is a barbecue joint’s breakfast, which means portions that laugh at your afternoon plans, cooked by the same family operation that runs what it bills as Osceola County’s only open wood-burning barbecue pit for lunch and dinner. Note the rhythm: Fat Boy’s closes on Mondays.
The bakery run: Fortuna and 10th Street
For the sweet and portable version, Fortuna Bakery & Coffee at 1300 13th St is a Colombian panadería with a full case: corn empanadas, pan de bono, buñuelos, tequeños, milhoja layered with dulce de leche, and proper coffee — a completely different breakfast accent, and a St. Cloud essential. Downtown, 10th Street Produce & Deli covers the fresh side: a greengrocer and deli grown from a roadside stand, making sandwiches, salads and soups to order from its own produce, with local honey and farm eggs for the take-home bag.
And a second bakery accent: Terracotta
Thirteenth Street’s Latin bakery bench runs two deep. Terracotta Cafe & Bakery, at 53 13th St, is a Colombian café whose namesake breakfast plates rice and beans with a melted-cheese arepa, fried egg, sausage and steak — the full bandeja-style morning — alongside its pastry case and coffee. Between Terracotta, Fortuna and the downtown rooms, St. Cloud’s breakfast map has a distinctly Latin layer that reflects the town Osceola County has become: the veterans’ colony’s grid, filled in by the county’s newer families, eating very well at both ends of the morning.
A St. Cloud morning, assembled
Start at the lakefront for the sunrise walk, coffee at Madilynn’s, brunch at Loading… or the full Fat Boy’s treatment, then a bakery box from Fortuna for the drive home. That is a better morning than most Orlando neighborhoods can assemble, and it is all within about a mile. Plot the stops on the Orlando Top Spots Map, and see where to eat in St. Cloud for what the same kitchens do after noon.
Orlando Citizen by email
The weekly edition, in your inbox
One email, every Saturday: the week’s edition of Orlando Citizen — the week’s stories, rankings and winners, gathered in one place. Free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Related Stories
Editor’s Picks
Spotted an error? Tell us — corrections · How we rank