El Montañero Colombian bakery on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood.

On a cheery strip of Myrtle Avenue, east of the asterisk intersection of Palmetto, Myrtle, and Wyckoff streets, past the shiny Madison Diner, a bright green space brews what would be the best coffee in Bushwick, except that it is in Ridgewood. City boundaries aside, El Montañero is a great coffee shop, bakery, and restaurant to experience South American sweets and savories.

	Batidos y más. Click for more.

You will still get the Greek-style cardboard cups but this brew tops any bodega’s drip. Though not roasted locally, the Colombian owner sources his beans from the tierra templada, or temperate zone of Colombia, which provides the best conditions for the country’s coffee growers. Mild and nutty, the coffee is the natural accompaniment to any of the bakery’s house made pastries.

Dozens of starchy gems line glass cases in front; there are golden loaves, fist-sized meringues, doughnuts, and empanadas. Their most popular item, a rich wedge of Danish, is layered with guava and thickened cream cheese.

When my friends ordered batidos, our waitress — decked out in a tight yellow t-shirt and matching visor — asked, “milk or water.” Like Italian ices, the tropical shakes can be made lushly creamy or dairy-free, blended with guava, passion fruit, or lulo, a tart citrus fruit.

An extensive savory menu of soups, sandwiches, salads, and typical Colombian offerings is available. The platters, huge and with a grab bag of ingredients, read like shopping lists: “rice, beans, pork skin, sausage, egg, avocado, corn cake, steak, sweet plantain” in the plato montañero while the bistec a la criolla includes “steak in tomato sauce, cassava, potatoes, rice, salad.”

Breakfasts are just as hefty. If you can’t commit to an LP-sized plate of steak and eggs for breakfast, any of the bakery selection to dip will work — a trio of almohabanas, flattened golf balls of spongy, slightly cheesy bread, absorb hangovers almost as well as they do the coffee.

El Montañero Bakery & Restaurant
55-21 Myrtle | 718-366-0400
Mon-Sun 6am-11pm
Bakery Items $.50-3.25; Restaurant items $3.00-12.00
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