Blonde Biscotti, a freshly-opened coffee shop and bakery on West Gray at Montrose, wants to let the sunlight shine into their new store, which neighbors Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana and Nourish Juice Bar. Co-owners Toni and Lisa Richardson, a mother-daughter team, have finally opened their doors after a long wait on City of Houston permits, and they’re ready to share their unique creation with the city.

On our recent visit, several large windows and a gray brick accent wall gave an impression of a light and airy yet slightly industrial atmosphere. The menu, written in chalk on a large board behind the counter, explains the offerings at Blonde Biscotti. Until their grand opening and full menu launch (the date will be announced soon), the coffee house/bakery offers what they described as a limited menu. However, we found the offerings to be vast and nearly overwhelming.

Blonde Biscotti. Photo by Becca Wright

The menu is divided into two segments, a “Drink Bar” menu and a “Biscotti Bar” menu. Listed under the Drink Bar section are options ranging from traditional coffee ($1.95) and espresso drinks ($2.75 and up) to espresso flights (around $9), non-coffee options, and both hot and iced teas. The Biscotti Bar menu also boasts nice variety, as it includes subgroups such as sweet-scottis, fruit-scottis, beer-scottis and pup-scottis. Yes, that means they’ve baked special biscottis for your pooch.

If you’re wondering what an espresso flight entails, it’s your choice of three different espresso tastings – the Midtown, The Heights and the Sugar Land – and each includes two to three different espresso shots of single origin or blended beans, a sparkling water chaser and your choice of biscotti from the bar. Choose from biscotti flavors like snickerdoodle, peanut butter crunch (which boasts 30 grams of protein), birthday cake, nutty brunette, natural blonde, fig and walnut, and vanilla almond orange. There are also savory varieties — including ones that are baked with beer — that change regularly. Want to buy biscottis a la carte? They’re $3 each and baked fresh daily at the shop.

Photo by Isaiah Peters

During our visit, we powered up with a Midtown flight and The Heights flight, and chose the natural blonde and birthday cake biscotti flavors. The biscotti was an ideal texture of stiff-but-not-break-your-teeth tough. The birthday cake flavor tasted very much like cake icing, complete with rainbow sprinkles. A gratis bright magenta “hibiscus cooler” iced tea cooled us off while buzzing from our caffeine kick.

Blonde Biscotti serves locally roasted coffee, including the brand Geva, which is based in Houston. We like that. We’ll return soon when the full menu is available, and we’ll be sure to bring back a biscotti or two for the office dogs.

Blonde Biscotti, 1000 W. Gray St., 713-955-2952, blondebiscotti.com
Hours: Tuesday to Friday 7 am-7 pm, Saturday & Sunday 8 am-7 pm. Closed Monday