The ordering system is complex at this faux-rustic little sandwich shop/marketplace, which caters more to regulars who know their way around the place instead of visitors who don’t know anything. It would seem that you first order your hot drinks from the coffee counter by the door, pay for them, then order your food from the sandwich counter a few steps over. After getting your order ticket, you find a seat (which may involve waiting, if you go during rush hour when it’s too cold to sit in one of the outside lawn chairs facing a four-lane highway) and when ready your food is served to you. You eat…then you go up to the cash register, ruthlessly lined with candied goodies, and pay.
My favorite order these past few years has been an enormous, tender herb biscuit for breakfast/lunch, lightly heated (microwaved), with two pats of butter. The sandwiches are decent, but too heavily buttered when grilled and rather generic and served in papered wicker baskets; soups can be overly peppered. The tiny marketplace consists of a short wall of wine and an eclectic assortment of crackers, spreads, cookie mixes, and candies. The decor and feel have something of a Martha Stewart stamp to it, due to the creator’s past professional involvement with Ms. Stewart; several years back, the store’s feature in a Martha magazine sat prominently framed on the wall.
Despite its flaws, I have always had strong, fond memories of those huge biscuits, and the hot chocolate is acceptable - although mostly whipped cream, it’s at least good, genuine whipped cream, which is more than I can say for its neighboring competitor, Guglhupf.
2694 Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd., Durham, NC, USA
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