Breakfast in Sedona

Coffee Pot Restaurant, 2050 SR-89A, is the West Sedona one and a long-standing diner: breakfast and diner food, the sort of place that is busy at nine on a Saturday for a reason.

Red Rock Cafe, 100 Verde Valley School Road, is at the other end, down toward the Village of Oak Creek, doing breakfast and brunch.

They are about fifteen minutes apart, and in Sedona that matters more than it would elsewhere, because the traffic on SR-179 and through the Y can turn fifteen minutes into forty in season.

Breakfast is the meal Sedona gets busy for

If you are hiking, you want to be at a trailhead early: the lots fill, the shuttle runs Thursday to Sunday from 7 a.m., and by mid-morning in spring the popular trailheads are gone. That pushes breakfast either side of the hike, and both of these fill accordingly.

The practical advice is simple. Eat early, before eight, or eat late, after the first wave. On a spring or autumn weekend the middle is the worst possible time to arrive anywhere in Sedona.

Both close in the early afternoon, as most breakfast places here do, so a late brunch is not the reliable plan people assume.

Before you drive to a trailhead afterwards

Check what the parking situation is first. The Sedona parking and shuttle guide covers which trailhead lots close to cars on shuttle days, where the free park-and-ride lots are, and the current Red Rock Pass prices, which are still $5 a day.

The other thing worth checking over breakfast is the trail closures page, because a Forest Service order can shut a trail overnight and the sign at the trailhead is a poor time to find out.

Elsewhere

Cottonwood has more breakfast options and they open earlier, one from 5 a.m.; see the Cottonwood breakfast page. The Verde Shuttle between the two runs hourly from 6 a.m. for $2.