The Gourmet Cafe

I walked by recently and the place closed down. Sad =(I’ll miss their spicy shrimp soup.

«Gourmet»? You have GOT to be kidding me. The reviewers who gave this place four or five stars are crazy, I’m sorry.
A little, messy hole in the wall, with sloooooooooow, poor service. I had the worst smoothie of my life here today. Uh who puts whipped cream on a smoothie? The lady who rang me up was totally rude. When I asked why she was charging tax on a smoothie to go (not legal btw) she said nothing and just handed me a receipt. Horrible, will not be back.

Little tucked-​away, Monday-​Friday breakfast & lunch spot. They have substantial sized daily specials and soups.
My fave is the Spicy Shrimp Soup (get it early before all the «meat» is gone) comes with a lime wedge and crackers… very flavorful broth for spice-​lovers.
Also, the small plastic containers of fresh cut, seasonal fruit for around $ 3 is the best deal in town!

Five star breakfast burrito and so affordable I can buy one for my co-​worker as a hangover surprise! Not greasy, not heavy… but a perfect combination of perfectly cooked eggs, bacon, potatoes, fresh salsa, and cheese. Consistently delicious, and super friendly service. I’m sorry I walked past this tiny little joint so many times before trying it out.
This may be my favorite breakfast burrito from anywhere…
While I was waiting for my first burrito, some big dude comes in and orders two XL soups to go. K, I’m a big fan of the tomato basil soup at Loose Leaf down the street, but a large soup there is really pretty small. Gourmet Café has truly meal sized options if you’re just in the mood for a good bowl of homemade soup. Today, I braved the spicy shrimp and rice soup (braved because I’m usually not a big fan of shrimp) because it was the only option on the menu. I got a small for $ 2.50. It’s pretty tasty, with several large, well cleaned whole shrimp (slightly chewy for my taste, however) a really delicious broth, rice and fresh cilantro and lime wedge. Just really simple and really light and flavorful.
The food here seems to be prepped and made with great care and I will be popping in to sample more of the fare.

A little hole in the wall next to downtown’s Daily Grill that serves up breakfast fare good and cheap.
They serve the usual breakfast fare — bagels, coffee, croissants, egg and breakfast meat sammiches but it’s cheap (less than five bucks) and realtively quick — I mean depending on how many people are in there. Not to mention it’s good. Here’s their take on a bagel with lox: Bagel, lox, cream cheese, onion, cucumber, tomato. Yeah, it’s so good it might become my new «usche» (the usual). My co-​worker gets the egg and cheese on a croissant — which looks equally good but I haven’t been able to swipe a bite yet.
They also serve burgers around lunch time. and cold and hot sammiches. I wanted to try their sauteed mushroom cheese burger when I walked in today but alas, their grill closes at 2pm. I went for the hot pastrami and cheese on sourdough instead. Sandwich, drink and salad for less than $ 6.50? You can’t beat that, esp. downtown. The sammich was pretty good, but pastrami is an odd meat anyway so…
I think this place is better as a breakfast spot than lunch. Oooh they also have ice cream. Drumsticks galore — caramel filled, fudge filled and original. :)