Brighton Cafe: 23 Years, No Espresso Machine, No Ads, Full House

Brighton Cafe has served the same corner of Commonwealth Ave. and Washington St. since 2003, without a single advertisement, a delivery-app habit, or an espresso machine. The Taing family owns it. They run it themselves, seven to four, six days a week. In a city where new cafes chase matcha, brown butter and ube flan, this diner sells plain breakfast and keeps selling it.

Co-owner Catherine Taing has worked the room for more than 20 years. Her parents took over the business in 2003, right after she graduated. The family had come to the United States in 1981, and owning a place like it was her father's idea. The cafe was already a breakfast and lunch spot then.

"It was an existing business before, and then we took over the business in 2003," Taing said. "It's very similar to [what it is now]. We didn't change much of the setup, but throughout the years we added stuff and adjusted the menu."

Her husband, David Taing, joined the operation when they married.

"Once we got married, he just joined," Taing said. "That was the rule."

How the diner operates day to day?

The doors open at 7 a.m. and close at 4 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The menu runs all day. Sundays belong to the family. On weekdays, the entire operation is Catherine, David and the cook.

The menu is a chalkboard. Some items have changed over the years. Some classics, Taing notes, can never be erased. Nothing on it is overcomplicated.

"Our menu is very simple, and everything is simple and good," Taing said. "Everything is fresh. We don't do any fancy stuff."

Customers can add or subtract what they want. Some days every other order is pancakes. Other days it is steak and eggs.

"Monthly, I think everything sells pretty equally," Taing said. "But day to day, there will be more chicken one day, more steak another."

Taing does not like being asked what's good on the menu.

"I hate that question," she said. "What I like doesn't necessarily mean it's what you like. I don't know what you're in the mood for. I can say everything on the menu is good, but I don't know what you like."

David has a simpler answer. He keeps telling her to suggest the potatoes. The home fries, Taing said, come with everything.

Why the cafe dropped a $10,000 espresso machine?

The clearest signal of the cafe's strategy sits in its absence: a $10,000 espresso machine that came out a few years ago. The machine kept breaking, and espresso drinks were not selling.

"A few years ago we had a machine, but it wasn't selling enough," Taing said. "It was like $10,000, and it kept breaking, and then we just took it out."

Someone still asks for a latte now and then. The answer is no. In the last two years, the family added two pre-mixed iced drinks instead: Vietnamese coffee and Thai tea.

"It's not really a competition to the regular coffee," Taing said of the Vietnamese coffee. "It's just a different option, because it's stronger, it's sweet." The regular drip, she said, is already a bit stronger than Dunkin'.

What keeps customers coming back?

The neighborhood's calendar drives the business. Leases in the area turn over on Sept. 1 and May 1. Students graduate, recent grads rent for a few years, young professionals move on, and every year brings a new set of regulars.

"It's sad to see the regulars move out," Taing said. "A lot of people stay for a few years, but sometimes they go to a new city."

Some land nearby. Taing runs into former regulars in Brighton Center who moved toward Oak Square. Others order the same dish every single day.

"I think that's amazing, because I'm not like that," Taing said. "I can't eat the same thing every day. When I'm here, I don't know what I want to eat, because it's the same menu. But to me, it makes life easier, in a sense."

The regulars start young. Many kids come from the housing nearby.

"I've been here for 23 years," Taing said. "They'll be kids, and they'll come, and a few years later they're teenagers, and they'll say, 'Oh, we used to come in when we were little.'"

One pair of customers sent a wedding invitation after a first date at the cafe. Others who moved away come back, and Taing still recognizes them.

How did the pandemic nearly break the business?

The pandemic was the closest Brighton Cafe came to trouble. It closed for two or three weeks during the shutdown, then ran takeout only for most of 2020 and brought back a few tables in 2021. The cafe had never used delivery apps. When regulars started ordering in instead of coming in, Taing signed up.

"We were able to grind it out, basically," Taing said. "I know a lot of businesses just could not. It's because we're family-owned, and all my family works at the restaurant. We didn't have to rely on outside help, so we were able to consolidate and just work it ourselves. It was just us."

The family's other locations fared worse. Her brothers run a second cafe in Brighton. Until last year, the family also owned Twin Donuts in Allston, which never recovered after the pandemic.

"It never picked up after the pandemic," Taing said. "I couldn't tell you why."

Who takes over next?

The work is heavy. Taing's kids help on weekends and summers, but none has shown interest in taking over, and she is not pushing.

"That's something we'll think about once they get older," she said.

The family runs the cafe alone, and for now that is enough staffing.

"If it's busier, I'd have to think about employees," Taing said.

"It's been part of our life so long," she added. "It's a bit tiring, because we're here seven to four, six days a week. But we do take a day off."

The succession question is the one variable the chalkboard menu cannot answer, and with a $10,000 espresso machine already retired for lack of demand, the family's answer will likely stay as plain as the home fries that come with everything.