The Wandering Eater

All of my (two) previous experiences with Caffé Falai, the food has been delicious but I tend to think their service sucks since it’s been sloth-like. But I have reached a late epiphany with this place. It’s wonderful to eat here for breakfast and/or brunch.

The waitress never rushes you out; the loud, garrulous Italian gentleman, Enrico, greets you and assists you in your coffee and/or pastry order. You can linger here as long as you would like to. Heck, I stayed there for 1 1/2 hours for breakfast and that’s not normal for me. I guess because being a native New Yorker, weekday mornings and afternoons tend to be the mode of “get food now, eat, and go back to school.” It seems to me Caffé Falai’s philosophy is, “Take your time. Unwind and enjoy your stay here with really tasty food.” I concur with this idea. It’s just too bad that I don’t have that kind of time and serene life.

Back to the main focus, the food. Since it’s morning at 8 AM, I don’t want to eat another chocolate croissant (since I ate it before), I chose to seat myself near the windows, where there’s better lighting and ordered a meal here. Since I was left to think what the heck I want to eat (and that debate took a good 5 minutes), I opted for their “Baked Eggs with Tomato, Fontina and Basil” ($9) and a regular cup of coffee ($1.50) to start with. While I was waiting for these items, the bread plate appeared before me.

It’s a plate of lightly toasted, sliced foccacia. This bread is delicious. The slightly crisp, thin crust meets chewy, yeasty crumb. The olive oil flavor is also in there…just a slight. The dipping oil is fine; it just makes the bread tastier due to the added (good) fat.

After noshing on the foccacia for a couple of minutes, I just got a bit impatient waiting and just started to snap a few photos of their pastry case and bread rack. So here it is:

Look at all that lovely bread loaves…

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