As someone who breaks a sweat as soon as I step foot outside in southern Louisiana, I am counting down the days until that cool front comes in. In the meantime, it looks like we’re going to have to get creative if we want to milk the season for all it’s worth. That’s why when I saw Magpie Cafe’s Perkins Road overpass location was serving its pumpkin French toast for another weekend, I knew I had to act fast.
Once I got inside and placed the order, my eyes widened as the server brought a plate with three large pieces of toast garnished with green pumpkin seeds and sides of syrup and whipped pumpkin butter. My fall dreams were about to come true.
The toast was soft and melted in my mouth upon the first bite, but the crust added a crispy dimension to the mix. The pumpkin taste was subtle and not too overwhelming.
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But the star of the morning was undoubtedly the whipped pumpkin butter. Cool and light, it served as a nice counterpoint to the warm toast. It was soft, a bit thicker than whipped cream and had a pumpkin flavor that was satisfying without being too overpowering.
I paired the pumpkin French toast with a beet superfood latte, a pink health food marvel that caught my eye while I was scrolling through Magpie’s Instagram page. With the keto diet trend and several clean-eating brands popping up around town, Baton Rouge has been on quite a health kick recently, and I didn’t want to miss out.
The latte is made from a powder that comes from a mixture of beets, carrots, cinnamon and nutmeg, usually served with hemp and coconut milk. But for all those ingredients, the flavors are rather subtle, providing a way for the picky eater to get all the health benefits without having to force themselves to stomach a plate of vegetables.
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Plus, the latte is as gorgeous in person as it was on Instagram. Between the warm pink color from the beets and the tulip latte art, it’s safe to say no filter would be necessary for that inevitable social media post. The drink also doubled as a palette cleanser from the sweet toast.
I sat outside on the porch, my table simultaneously overlooking the pink and purple flowers on the patio, the herbs growing along the edges and the foliage helping the umbrellas shade the seating area. At 9 a.m., I could still feel the occasional slight breeze, giving me a teaser of the fall I’d been longing for. But that didn’t last too long—the rising sun and temperature soon chased me back inside.
Magpie does weekend brunch specials 8 a.m.-noon, so it’s worth contacting them ahead of time to see what they’re offering next. Pro tip: Get there early to make sure you get a chance to try the next big thing before they run out. The Sunday crowd rushes in around 10 a.m.