One of our readers recommended this little place to us, so we made a visit to the Cafe located at 1520 W. Boy Scout Road in the Middle Valley area. Actually, the complete name is The Jewelry Boutique & Cafe. From the outside you see more of the front section, which is the boutique and may not realize there is food just a few steps away.
Somehow, even though we understand they have been open approximately six months, they were having a “grand opening” celebration when we were there last weekend. This meant they weren’t serving their full menu, much to our disappointment.
The menu selections on this day happened to only be sandwiches, but they had a fryer set up in the parking lot preparing catfish (for sandwiches)! I really would like to have tried some of the sides, but nothing was being offered except French fries.
Wayne ordered the Cafe Club sandwich featuring ham, bacon, tomato and lettuce, served on toasted bread. It was certainly “stuffed”.
I ordered the catfish, minus the bread. This was prepared southern style with yellow cornmeal, deep-fried and most importantly, not the least bit greasy. Catfish is one of the Friday and Saturday night dinner specials (along with country style ribs [$8.99] and shrimp [$8.99]) with baked beans, cole slaw, fries, hushpuppies and dessert for $9.99, although I doubt they are going to have the deep fryer set up in the parking lot every weekend.
Other dinner specials (Tuesday through Thursday from 4:00 PM until 7:00 PM) are Tuesday, Chicken and Dressing or Country Style Ribs; Wednesday, Chicken and Dumplings or Salisbury Steak; and Thursday, Meatloaf or Carolina Pork Tenderloin.
We were talking to several of the other customers and were told they have the “most wonderful chunky chicken salad with grapes”. I wish we had been able to try it.
Their desserts are homemade and on the day of our visit they had apple pie, peach pie, chocolate eruption cake, and coconut cake. Wayne ordered the apple, while I went with the peach. They were warm and topped with whipped cream.
The Cafe offers a generous list of sandwiches ($5.99 to $7.99), burgers ($6.99 to $7.50), salads, as well as a soup of the day served with fresh bread. Prices are reasonable and the people were extremely friendly and helpful. If we asked the server a question and she didn’t know (it was her first day), she went to find out. That’s more than I can say about some of our other experiences.
Hopefully The Jewelry Boutique and Cafe will gain a following (there were quite a few customers when we were there who all said they had been there numerous times) because such nice people and good food deserve a chance. Another local restaurant to support! And they have table service.
I would also like to mention how impressed we were with their serving ware – no paper or plastic here! These had to be the heaviest dishes and glasses ever placed before me in a restaurant. Even the dessert plates were heavy - a nice touch for such a small restaurant – maybe eight or nine tables.
The only thing that bothered us was the fact that when we used our debit card, the person (not our server) who brought it back to us, stood there waiting and watching while Wayne was figuring the tip, etc. There is a book called “On the Line”, written by chef Eric Ripert that lists the 129 Cardinal Sins of servers. Number 83 is “Watching while the guest completes the credit card slip”.
Hours for the Cafe are Tuesday through Thursday for lunch from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m. and dinner from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.; Friday and Saturday they are open from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.
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