These biscuits are available for just two hours on Monday morning. Here’s how to get them
The streets are quiet around midtown on Monday morning. Little is open, except an unassuming door in the basement level of a Victorian house on 23rd Street at J.
Through the door is a diminutive room with two pastry cases and a register. On Monday mornings between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., you’ll also find Thomas Harris and his biscuits. But don’t come unannounced; the biscuits are only available via preorder.
Harris runs Midtown Biscuits out of his parents’ business, Midtown Bakery, also a microbusiness of sorts. Harris, a native of Sacramento, went to school in South Carolina where he frequented the regional restaurant chain Bojangles and enjoyed their popular biscuits and sandwiches.
“When I came back here, I would be helping out in the bakery, sometimes in the morning, and on Mondays, there’s nothing open in midtown,” he said.
“I was like, What are we gonna make? My mom shared this recipe for biscuits, and I tried it once. It was super easy. So ever since then, every time I came in, I just made a bunch of biscuits.”
When he launched Biscuit Mondays in 2024, he sold directly to walk-ins.
“But I had, like, zero restaurant experience, so it was kind of overwhelming in the first few months, because there would be lines out the door. So I switched this year to preorder only,” he said.
Preorders go live Thursday mornings, and are open through Sunday. Harris changes the flavors up, drawing inspiration from his travels.
“If I’m traveling somewhere trying a different bagel for example, I’ll try to incorporate some of that,” he said.
Flavors have included an “everything” biscuit, cheddar cheese and chive, blueberry and garlic-Asiago. His newest flavor is a brown sugar biscuit.
I opted for a sage sausage patty, egg & cheese biscuit sandwich ($13.00), as well as a standalone jalapeño & cheddar biscuit ($3.50). The biscuits are light and fluffy yet fairly hearty. I split them with my husband, and that was more than enough.
When Harris isn’t making biscuits, by day he develops youth STEM programs for the National Society of Black Engineers. He is also a photographer whose work can be seen on Instagram.
What I’m Eating
There are far too many tacos in this town for me to be loyal to just one spot. No single Mexican restaurant satisfies all my tortilla-wrapped cravings, but a few hold a place in my heart for one or two specific things.
Case in point is North Oak Park’s La Venadita. While it is an all-around decent Mexican restaurant, it’s the crispy tacos ($5.50) that stick with me.
Corn tortillas are folded around shredded chicken or carnitas, and pinned closed with toothpicks. It then goes into the deep fryer, crisping not just the tortilla but also the exposed ends of the meat filling.
To finish, the taco is topped with cheese, shredded lettuce and sour cream. It’s a satisfying bite when you crunch through the shell, and the best bits are definitely where the meat has fried crisp.
La Venadita is one of my regular lunch hangs, especially in warmer weather, when its open courtyard is a lovely place to languish over a margarita. The restaurant makes several varieties other than the standard lime and agave.
Amusingly, on a recent visit, I tried the jalapeño margarita. Much to my dismay, the peppers the bartender shook into the drink were so overpoweringly potent, I couldn’t finish even one sip, and I have a high tolerance. She graciously swapped it out for a hibiscus margarita that soothed my burning palate.
La Venadita
Address: 3501 3rd Ave., North Oak Park
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturdays; 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Sundays; closed Mondays
Phone: 916-400-4676
Website: lavenaditasac.com
Vegetarian options: Ample, including an Impossible Meat taco and a sweet potato taco
Noise level: Moderate
Openings & Closings
- Backstage Brewing Co. hosted a soft opening for its taproom on Christmas Day. The brewery has been producing and canning beers in its Broadway facility at 2425 24th St., Suite B, adjacent to Real Pie Co. for nearly a year. The Curtis Park taproom will fully open to the public when production ramps up to meet demand.
- Kash Hospitality Group, the backers of downtown’s Citizen Capitol Craft House, plan to breathe new life into the currently defunct Goldfield Trading Post in midtown. The new venue, called Midtown Live, will feature a sports bar and venue for private events and live music; the adjacent Tack Room will be reinvented as Landmark Social Club, a craft cocktail bar. The group aimed to open by the Super Bowl in February.
- Kareem’s International Market soft-opened Sunday at 199 Blue Ravine Road, Suite 170 in Folsom, according to a social media post. Owner Kareem Seris says the market will have a grand opening Saturday. Kareem’s sells a variety of Middle Eastern products, and it plans to open a meat market. The bakery is currently open, selling baked goods including manakish, a Levantine flatbread topped with herbs, cheese or ground meat.
