Spoons in McKinney Serves Great Home Cooking and Strawberry Cake

Spoons is a favorite of McKinney residents because it's a local business but also because the food is delicious and the environment is fun--that small town feeling. Try the spaghetti casserole (in restaurant or through the catering), the breakfast migas, or the strawberry cake!

Just 30 miles north of Dallas (up highway 75) is the small city of McKinney, Texas. Boasting 150,000 residents and the title of fastest growing city in the nation (at least twice in the last 10 years),
McKinney is a quaint area with a big heart and great dining.

The city was listed as the 5th best place to live in America in 2010. McKinney, as the county seat of Collin County, is best known as the location of the prison where Jesse James was imprisoned when he was caught. The city is also known for environmentally friendly schools, such as the sustainable Walker Elementary; the Crape Myrtle Trails; a city-wide nonprofit organization that partners schools, churches, volunteers, and city agencies for better education; and Adriatic, a unique shopping area and architectural beauty.

Downtown McKinney is 2 miles east of 75 between Virginia and Louisiana, and within the square, you can find amazing steaks and salads at Rick's Chophouse, the best tapas in North Texas at Café Malaga, and amazing desserts from the Cake Stand (which we will discuss in a later post). But one of our favorite places to eat on "The Square" is Spoons Cafe and Bar. This homey corner restaurant is the perfect place to meet a girlfriend for breakfast, to have a business meeting for lunch, or to take the kids for an afternoon snack. Dinner is also served Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays—typical because "The Square" is flooded with antique shoppers as well as visitors for the almost weekly festivals and events.

Look for the Spoons spoon

Hm. What do we enjoy eating at Spoons? My best friend enjoys the Migas: scrambled eggs, chorizo, jalepenos, cheese, and tortilla chips with salsa and hot tortillas. YUM! The helpings are so large that she can eat half of a serving and take half home for lunch or breakfast the following day. Another friend loves the Grown-Up Grilled Cheese, which is a sandwich on sourdough with mozzarella, provolone, and American cheeses topped with an herb spread—great with the tomato soup.

Me? I like the breakfast sandwich, which is sourdough bread around fried eggs, Virginia ham, cheddar cheese, and tomatoes. You can order a half sandwich if you aren't very hungry. And the sandwich wouldn't be complete without cottage potatoes—seasoned house potatoes—and cold orange juice. That's a great way to start a morning!

Our discerning small person loves their cinnamon scones, which are hot and almost chewy and have cinnamon chips in them. He says that the hot dogs are good and the PB&J (which had grape jelly) was really good.

Spoons' Strawberry Cake

Of course, the family favorite is—DRUMROLL—the strawberry cake. The baked goods at Spoons are all beautiful and tasty, but the strawberry cake is indescribably amazing. The cake is SO good that we have introduced all of our friends to the strawberry cake, and some of them drive 20 or 30 minutes up to Spoons to eat lunch and... have their strawberry cake.

The cake is a pink cake, tasting like strawberries, with a strawberry-flavored buttercreme icing. Sometimes, the pastry chef will drizzle dark chocolate on the cake—like he did for Valentine's Day this year. We prefer straight strawberry cake. The cake is $4.95 a slice, and we purchase two slices and split them four ways: enough of a treat that four of us are full. If you want to celebrate with cake, you can purchase a full cake for about $50, but it's one of the largest cakes you've ever seen!