It is always fun to find a unique eatery spot wherever we go. Sometimes, finding the best tasting food is the most important thing, but, focusing on a location more than the taste can be quite fun. We decided to be a bit more adventurous while visiting Boston, and found an interesting breakfast spot.
It is located inside a bookstore! And it is not some kind of small snack spot, and not a separate entity from the bookstore, but the staffs who works at the café also works at the bookstore. How cool is that!
Right when you enter, if you don’t pay too much attention, you might not realize it is a bookstore and a café. But the seating area is large enough and is noticeable. The seating inside this bookstore is strictly reserved for customers who are eating off their menu, so you can’t just sit there and read without eating/drinking. They had a nice size counter seat to the left, and then table seating in front and the back of the bar. When we arrived, it was not super crowded but it was crowded enough that they didn’t have good table available around these areas. But then, a staff told us to go all the way to the back and get a table there.
So, we did as instructed, and then we saw a large seating area all the way in the back! Nice! They had lots of natural lights flooding in from the windows. It was nice but at the same time, no one can control how much of the sunlight to let in since there was no blinds or curtains. They had a large TV screen on the wall, and it was playing one of the Ghibli movies. A staff told us that the owner of the bookstore is a big fan of Ghibli movies, and that one of the TV screens in the bookstore is (almost) always playing one of the Ghibli movies. Since we love Ghibli movies, we were happy to see that! They don’t play the movies with the sound though (had subtitles), not to bother the patrons. Another staff quickly came over and told us we could seat at any available table. We decided to sit away from the windows so that we won’t get too warm. That was the right choice since it got quite bright in there…
They had a good variety of food offerings, similar to diner-type menu. We like going to a diner for some comfort food every now and then, so it was not easy to choose. I was not expecting anything super delicious or gourmet from this place, but something fun or comforting. My hubby ordered a cup of House Blend Coffee ($2.50), their own medium roast blend. If you are just getting coffee without food, the refill will cost you 75 cent. If you are getting coffee with food, then it is bottomless. Good to know. It was a good cup of coffee, not too strong but basic coffee.
For food, my hubby decided to get the soup and sandwich combo, called Make it a Samsara ($12.95). Here, you get to choose a bowl of soup, or simple salad, and half sandwich. The soup choices were between French Onion Soup or Soup de Jour. We asked what the soup of the day was, and the server told us it is chicken noodle soup. Since we were not feeling 100% healthy that morning, chicken noodle soup sounded perfect. So, we chose that for the soup. For sandwich, they had four different sandwiches to choose from, and my hubby went with Cape Codder.
Cape Codder is made with melted provolone, turkey, bacon, and cranberry mayo on grilled Challah bread. It was a good size, so much ingredients packed between the two slices of bread. It was pretty tasty too, generous amount of meat, packed with flavor. The soup was good, nothing fancy, but a soothing bowl of soup to calm your belly. The size of the “bowl” was rather small, more like a “cup” of soup to me. It did have chunks of chicken meat in there, which was nice.
I went with more sweet offering than the savory ones. I chose Malted Belgian Waffle ($9.95), topped with whipped cream and a choice of strawberries or bananas. I asked for banana and whipped cream. It first arrived to our table with just banana slices on top, so I told the staff that it supposed to have whipped cream… So he took it back and came back a few minutes later with mountain of whipped cream. No wonder it took more than few seconds to get the whipped cream on it. I don’t think I have ever seen this much generous whipped cream on waffle before… My hubby who has special love for whipped cream was very happy to see that!
The waffle was nice and fluffy, moist and tasty. The bananas were ripe and sweet, and whipped cream, well, it is not home-made kind but that was ok. The syrup was also not anything original, as it came in a packet. No frills here. Overall, it was a great sweet treat for the morning.
And the store itself was really cute, it of course had all sorts of books of many different genres everywhere. But the store had so much more than just books and stationaries.
It had really cute decorations (lots of Holiday items since it was around the holiday time), I wanted to buy them all…
They also had lots of funny items too, they had so much funny and interesting items! It was really fun looking around the store after our breakfast.
They had one uni-sex bathroom, on this main floor level, but had more on a different level.
This one was roomy and clean, simple and practical.
They had stairs to their second floor near the entrance. I didn’t take a peak, but it seems like they had more merchandise up there. Maybe they have more seating for eating? I am not sure…
The service was friendly and relaxing. We didn’t feel rushed, and it was easy to get attention of a staff if we needed anything. The food was not amazing, but good and tasty. The location was really unique and interesting. I really liked the atmosphere.
Trident Booksellers and Café – 338 Newbury Street Boston, MA 02115