Lynde Street Cafe

This past Saturday, Ricky and I decided to treat ourselves to breakfast out since we both had a good full week as part of our "Get Healthy in 2010" goal. While we both liked Reds a lot, I wanted to explore other breakfast places in the area, so we decided to try out Lynde Street Cafe, down the street from the Witch Museum.

Lynde Street Cafe may be a victim of bad location, since we never would have known this place existed if we didn't stumble upon it while talking a walk around downtown in a snow storm. It's very much off the beaten path and not as flashy or well known as Reds or Taste of Thyme. It's also less than a year old according to their website, so they don't have the legacy of the aforementioned restaurants.

One thing to keep in mind if you decide to try this place out: they are not opened on Sundays. I realize every restaurant deserves a day off -- especially since this one seems to be a family establishment -- but I feel like they're losing a lot of Sunday morning business potential with this day off.

Lynde Street offers both breakfast and lunch, but the decor is more geared towards lunch, I feel. The walls were an interesting green with glazed plates on the wall in a decorative pattern. We were one of a few couples in the restaurant at 10:30 -- again, I feel the result of bad location and newness -- so there was no wait. The server was also attentive, even though she forgot my order of orange juice.

I wish I could say that our breakfast was this hidden gem in the downtown area, but it was most decidedly average. The breakfast menu is only about a third of a page, while lunch takes over the rest of the two-page menu. The variety and cooking also reek of an afterthought. I got an egg sandwich with a side of home fries, tea, and an orange juice. Home fries are not listed as a side, but if you ask for them, they'll give them to you. Ricky ordered coffee and a spinach, bacon, and swiss omelet. All eggs are served with toast (he chose wheat) and home fries. Ricky said the toast was quite delicious and soft, but he felt the eggs were a bit dry and nothing special.

My meal could be best summed up as "lacking". I originally asked for cranberry juice, and they replied that they only had orange and apple. I originally asked for my egg sandwich on an english muffin, but they were also out of those, so I had to get it on a bagel. The variety of vegetables you could get in an omelet was also small. My eggs were also dry, but the soft grilled bagel helped mask it.

Loyal readers are now asking "but how was the bacon?" I'm sad to say it was a bit under cooked for my liking. Very soft and the flavors were almost lost with the dry eggs and bagel. I would not recommend getting it on a sandwich.

All in all, while a cheap meal, we both agreed that it was squarely average and that we probably would not be returning again for another meal. The lunch menu seems fuller, and hopefully is better prepared. Hopefully with time, the Lynde Street Cafe will fix their mistakes and improve their breakfast offerings.