Saturday, August 4, 2007

The New Bisquits and Gravy in Town


From May through October, Saturday mornings mean a Mom-and-Gail trip to the farmer's market and either breakfast or lunch. Today it was breakfast. Earlier in the week, friends had mentioned a new eatery called Cafe D'Lish that specialized in "good old food." No truffle-oil sprinkled omelets, goat cheese and anchovy scones or vegan muffins, but the type of food most small towns have for breakfast. D'Lish is also the kind of cafe that hopefully is coming back after communities turned to Mickey D's and BK's for our daily bread.

Located just west of the square on Kirkwood, Cafe D'Lish replaced the former Cafe Talent. The owners, Donna Stephens and Randy Groh are professional restaurant folks so the service was quick and Nicole, their cook, did a fab job--especially on her French toast with homemade, fresh blueberry sauce. I heard others going ga ga over a sample of Nicole's "Jamaican-Me-Crazy Chili." I snatched up a menu to see the entire list of offerings. Not only is the food especially reasonable, but in a town were the Sisco food distributor has a monopoly on virtually anything served in every restaurant for miles, the words "Made Fresh Daily" hit a high note.

Like breakfast, the lunch menu looks like the "who's who" in down-home, blue plate specials--chicken and dumplings, friend chicken livers, meatloaf, lots of side choices and of course ye' ole' breaded tenderloin. (No place in Indiana can be successful without one of these favorite sandwiches--regardless of the importance of trans fats and clogged arteries.) Desserts include southern Indiana favorites, red velvet cake and blackberry cobbler along with butter cake and chocolate peanut butter pie.

Breakfast is served 6:00 a.m. to 11:00 and lunch from 11:00 to 3:00 p.m. Most importantly, they're open on Sunday!

Thanks, Cafe D'Lish. Bloomington needed a downtown place like this since the previous version, Ladyman's, was run out by a big, bad ass ad agency whose owner just HAD to build his "global headquarters"right on top of Ladyman's spot on the city map. (That's material for future blogs).

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