During my recent stay in Nashua, one morning I found myself with a breakfast craving: I was specifically craving a breakfast burrito. While in many areas of the country this isn’t much of a problem, up here in Northern New England, what few burrito places we have mostly don’t serve breakfast, or serve up some sort of bland imitation of a breakfast burrito with some tired scrambled eggs and maple breakfast sausage. But luckily, a few online searches later, and I discovered that I was right down the street from a small, local chain that among its many breakfast offerings were several decent-sounding burritos: Pressed Cafe.
Opened by the same restaurateur behind the excellent Mint Bistro in Manchester, Pressed cafe is a small local chain, with locations in Nashua and Burlington, MA (with another coming to Bedford to the complex next to the new Whole Foods). In a marketplace that’s already crowded with fast casual eateries (heck, I think standing at their door, I can probably see a Chipotle and a Panera), it was a bit of a bold move, but Pressed Cafe starts with a simple concept (several panini presses, hence the name), puts a twist on it (focusing on fresh, natural ingredients), adds in a breakfast menu and some fresh-squeezed juices, and they’ve been having a fair bit of success.
Menu-wise, they’ve got an impressively large menu with literally dozens of breakfast and lunch burritos, wraps, salads, soups, and sandwiches. Normally, a menu this large is a bit of warning sign to me that a place is trying to do too much, but looking at the menu a bit more carefully, you can see that they are primarily leveraging most of the same ingredients several different ways. Opting for their chipotle steak and egg burrito and a coffee, I then found a seat after helping myself to some of their surprisingly refreshing complimentary “detox” water (water with fresh mint and ginger added).
The burrito came out shortly, and while it doesn’t really photograph well (a perennial problem with burritos: they basically look like a near-featureless dough capsule), I was quite happy with the results: perfectly cooked up scrambled eggs, some homefried potato, onions, peppers, a light smattering of jack cheese, and some tender chunks of smoky, marinated steak, this was a very well executed burrito, and it really did satisfy my cravings. The flavors were good and fresh, and, while my Southwest-calibrated tastes really want something a bit more bold and spicy, the overall flavors of the chipotle salsa were well-rounded and flavorful.
So, I found myself rather liking Pressed Cafe. It’s a nice, refreshing twist on the fast casual concept, and they’ve got a great breakfast burrito. The lunch options looked particularly nice as well, so hopefully at some point I can give their lunch menu a try as well.
