While we wait for Duane Sorenson’s Roman Candle Bakery (3377 SE Division Street) to start popping out promised squares of pizza bianca, breakfast service is already underway. The short menu highlights toast, bowls, and plates ranging from house-baked "super grain" bread smeared with honey, bee pollen, and butter, to buns loaded with steamed duck eggs and aged cheddar. We stopped in to taste test Roman Candle’s breakfast bowls, chock full of creative grains, fresh fruit, and unconventional toppings at $8 a pop.

Top Pick—Summer Farro Porridge: Best breakfast bowl of the year. A toothsome mix of farro, dried cherries and apricots, and compounded chunks of buttery brown hazelnut granola piled over tart yogurt. Sprinkled throughout: tiny yellow granules of floral bee pollen and a slick of grassy extra virgin olive oil.

Granola Bowl: Leagues above standard granola, Roman Candle’s includes heaps of nuts, bitter, 64% chocolate and giant cracks of pistachio in tangy milk. On top, seasonal hunks of peach and a thick swath of honey yogurt tagged with flax seed confetti. It’s sweet, salty, and just plain good.

Fritters and Cream: Nearly an entire bowl of maple heavy cream infused with Stumptown’s Hairbender espresso and a thicket of blueberries and blackberries for mixing. On the side, three perfectly egg-shaped ricotta fritters for dunking. The whole thing tastes like a deconstructed tiramisu and too much of a gastronomic ordeal for breakfast.

Roman Candle
3377 SE Division St
971-302-6605
Breakfast: Mon-Fri, 7-11am
Sat-Sun, 7am-1pm