Restaurant Wed Jun 27 2007

Reminder: Sweet Maple Cafe Still Rocks

I took two buses and a train this past Saturday morning to get down to Sweet Maple Cafe (located at 1339 W. Taylor), and the travel was well worth the meal.

Sweet Maple has been around for several years, but I had never eaten there, as the only times I have tried to go have been unsuccessful. The swarm of waiting people outside was reassuring, but ultimately too intimidating, especially when you're too hungry to go through the painful, Studio 54-like wait for a table at a popular restaurant.

The interior, with its wooden plank floors and homey accents, had a nice rural charm that made me feel I wasn't in the middle of a huge city. I ordered the egg and cheeser, which is a pile of egg and cheese sandwiched between slices of a sweet milk biscuit, a signature menu item. A side of applesauce, which I could tell did not come from an aluminum can, accompanied it.

I also ordered a single pancake, as I'm at the stage where I've come to accept that I can't eat a heap of sugar and call it breakfast, but I can negotiate between the savory and the sweet. The pancake was out of this world, reminiscent of sugar cookie dough. The real butter and maple syrup (also not from an aluminum can) finished the pancake off nicely.

If you want a refuge from the highbrow brunch dishes that are free of foams, emulsions and infusions, Sweet Maple is the place to eat.

— Robyn Nisi / Comments (1)