Nancy H.
Yelp
My kid and I had a delightful lunch here!
This lovely restaurant is on the site of the much loved, much missed St. Viateur bagel cafe/restaurant (RIP). I loved the outdoor patio area (which, of course, was not open, being the dead of winter and all lol)! This patio area is large and framed by a wooden canopy. I can imagine it being a great seating area come summer.
My kid and I LOVED the interior of this restaurant! It was gorgeous, reminiscent of a solarium, with SO much natural light (the whole wall facing the street is floor-to-ceiling windows. In fact, I think these windows open up to the patio area when the weather is nice). In the middle of the large space are some artificial lemon trees strung with white lights. There are panels of wallpaper by the entryway depicting garden greens with bright yellow lemons. The effect of it all is airy, and with the rattan-backed dining chairs, it really feels like one is dining in a lovely garden. A bougie garden.
We were seated right away. The menu was impressive, with many choices for sandwiches and salads (most were traditional dishes, but all seemed to have some sort of twist. We liked that!). I LOVED the nod to traditional Jewish foods (this used to be the St. Viateur cafe, after all!), with some classic bagel plates, and matzo ball soup and potato latkes being offered. I also LOVED the homage to Larry David and Richard Thomas and more, naming various deli sandwiches after these famous folks. They also had a healthy wine and cocktail selection (LOVE that!), and wonderful looking desserts. All in all, super menu. You'd be hard-pressed not to find something you like here.
Our order was taken right away. Nice! We ordered the Pigeon Salad and a turkey wrap to share. (The wraps come with your choice of dipping sauce. We opted for a Russian dressing sauce). And the food came promptly, too, and it was all delicious. The salad was so fresh, with wonderful goat cheese crumbles, chopped dates, crisp greens, and a flavorful champagne vinaigrette on the side. (The dressing was so good, I tried to duplicate it the following day. Really really good). The wrap was also wonderful, with a generous helping of moist turkey wrapped with lettuce in a warm tortilla. It totally did not need the dipping sauce (although, hey, we didn't complain that it was there! The wrap was moist and flavorful enough to stand on its own). My kid had an iced latte and said it was great. Our meal was super.
The only reason why I am not giving this restaurant 5 stars is because it took a LONG LONG time for us to get our bill to pay, once we were done dining. We actually thought they had forgotten about us. I couldn't catch our server's eye (and he didn't come to our area at all for over half an hour, actually). I saw our server chatting it up with other servers in a far corner of the restaurant. I kept watching the clock on my phone, worried that our parking meter was going to run out, and I finally asked a busboy who was clearing an adjacent table to please have our server bring us the bill. It was another 5-10 minutes until the owner came with the bill (I think it was the owner. It was a woman who apologized for the delay, saying how young her staff was there, and that she would talk to them about the service delays). (I wouldn't even mention all this but it took us between 30-40 minutes after we finished eating before we got the bill so, yeah, it really was a long time). Anyhow, this was the only glitch to our meal, and it wasn't a huge problem. We had a delightful meal, and for sure, I'll be back. I even raved about this place to my parents, and they are looking forward to visiting, too.