Thinking of places in the North Side to meet my friend at last night, I remembered the Modern Cafe on Western Avenue. I had a rather negative experience the last time I was here, which was probably at least six months ago, however, last night more than made up for the first time here! My friend and I arrived around 7:30 (just after happy hour ended-boo haha) and took the last two seats at the full bar, closest to the door. They also have a lot of tables beyond the bar, however, none of these were occupied. I never caught the bartender's name, but she was awesome, very friendly and patient, particularly considering my friend and I chose to catch up for quite sometime before ordering any food. They have a good amount of craft beers on draft so I went with the Green Flash Soul Style IPA after the bartender had given me a taster of it. Green flash in general is one of my favorite breweries and this totally hit the spot! My friend went for his usual Yuengling. After scanning the menu, we decided to split the Mediterranean layer dip (Hummus, diced tomatoes, kalamata olives, cucumbers and topped with feta cheese. Served with warm pita chips) and the Spartan sandwich (Steak, Gyro meat, Provolone & Feta cheese, onions, tomato slices with our special steak seasoning & dressing topped with tzatziki sauce on a 6" hoagie). The dip came out first and it was a HUGE portion for $8.99! It was really good and filled with all the good stuff, namely feta and olives-YUM! The pita also was grilled and warm when it was served. The sandwich, which was split for us back in the kitchen (without having to ask which was nice), was ginormous and both of us agreed we would not have been able to go it alone and actually finish it. My half had a lot of sauce on it, which is exactly how I prefer my gyros, and you could taste all the flavoring of the feta too. The meat was slightly dry but when paired with the sauce, it tasted pretty good. Since I live relatively close, I'm always going to keep Modern Cafe in mind when I'm looking for something quick, particularly a good craft beer since the bartender said they rotate frequent;y.