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| - This place was on Queen St East for over 10 years, before new restaurants and bakeries started popping up and I am sure it has something to do with the gentrification of this neighbourhood.
The menu is fairly extensive and not the egg-and-bacon-and-home fries you find at some local greasy spoons. The sandwiches are overall good but it's the brunch that people come here for.
Scrambled egg on a bed of rosti potatoes and a slice of smoked salmon is garnished with chives, a dollop of creamy horseradish and a small drop of caviar. The presentation definitely whets the appetite. The baked French toast is very dense, almost bread pudding like, layered with cinnamon and caramelized sugar and portion is very generous.
The café features soup, quiche, omelet and savoury tart du jour, written on the two chalkboards. The tarts are my personal favourite. The flaky pastry holds a trio of ingredients, (always one kind of cheese and two other what-have-you) generally creates a great harmony. The portion is small, but it is rich and packed with flavour, so every bite counts. On the side is a wedge of baguette and house salad. However, the butter on my baguette on most visits is clearly straight out of the fridge and hard to spread.
Among the bakery selections, the croissants and baguettes are their stable best sellers, then there are the desserts. The flourless chocolate cake is dense and moist, rich but not too sweet. The very French almond pear pie is also memorable: thinly sliced pear tops a ground almond paste, similar to marzipan, in a lovely pie shell.
The servers are friendly but given how packed they normally are (there is always a line out the door on weekend), it's not always the most attentive. One time, the glass of water I asked didn't come until I was almost done with my meal.
The place does not take anything except cash but have recently installed an ATM there.
Last, you can take the gal out of the café but you can't take the café out of the gal. After a meal, you will smell smoky and buttery for hours from the heavily fumed air.
For a great meal, I am definitely willing to overlook the above, because the food is always worth it.
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