Nothing but Blue Skies

If life really did imitate art, the southeast corner of Fatherland and South Seventh Street would exist in black and white, because the quaint sidewalk-cafe tableau—neighbors stopping in to chat, cops dropping by for lunch, dogs lounging while their owners sip coffee—looks like an outtake from The Andy Griffith Show.

Owner Kara Christian eyed the 1930s-era corner store, which previously housed The Place, Ricci's Italian restaurant and most recently Vino, for years before she finally got a shot at the lease. This summer she opened Sky Blue Coffee & Bistro, trading the shiraz-stained color scheme of the former wine-bar tenant for a cheery repertoire of light yellow and blue, and swapped the mellow inventory of chardonnays and burgundies for a buzz-inducing list of Drew's Brews coffees and herb-infused energy drinks.

Inside the intimate room, adorned with bountiful vases of fresh flowers from neighbor Larry Johnson's yard at the opposite corner of the four-way stop, it's hard to resist diving into the boxes of well-worn Trivial Pursuit cards on the colorfully clad tables. We rattled off a few obscure questions about international fishing rights and early 20th century poetry before turning to more relevant trivia—about fat-burning antioxidants and good old-fashioned comfort foods, all of which appear across Sky Blue's menu.

Christian, who previously owned The Mystic coffeehouse on Eighth Avenue, debuted in the restaurant industry two years ago with Cafe O2, an oxygen bar in Market Street Emporium on Second Avenue downtown. At Sky Blue, she has traded gas for liquid, offering a range of beverages brewed to boost energy, concentration, metabolism, virility and female sensuality. Sky Blue stocks a handful of tonics in the e•lix•r brand, which are concentrated blends of herbs, roots and fruits. She dilutes the concentrates with seltzer water to create refreshing therapeutic beverages such as the Depth Recharger (a blend of yerba mate, ginseng and green tea extract to help increase metabolism and burn fat) and Mind Over Muddle (ginkgo biloba, schisandra and gotu kola to enhance mental acuity). Yes, schisandra is a real plant.

Want to see your server blush? Ask for more information about the Mighty Joe Yang, a blend of berries and herbs—including "the amazing man-herb from Thailand"—which the menu recommends for "stoking the deepest flames of manly passion."

We can't speak to the performance-enhancing capacity of the e•lix•r concoctions, but the naturally sweet beverages, laced with deep fruit flavors and tangy citrus essences, offered a refreshing alternative to soda, juice or iced coffee.

If antioxidant-and-phytonutrient-rich superfoods aren't exactly your cup of green tea extract, Sky Blue also delivers an old-school menu of all-day breakfast and lunch, fortified with bagels, eggs and other comfort foods. For better or worse, it's a menu of homespun dishes you can imagine your mom—or maybe Aunt Bee—cooking.

For the Love of Toast won us over with its unpretentious variety of sourdough and multigrain toast points. With eight triangles—four topped with cinnamon sugar, two with peanut butter and two with simple whipped butter—the array made for a sturdy shared appetizer and arguably would have been a more satisfying meal than either of our breakfast entrées.

The fried eggs in Eggs Under the Tuscan Sun, topped with salsa and pine nuts, had the tough, warmed-over texture of one of those clever rubber disks used to plug a sink drain. While the yolks were cooked solid, the thin slices of toast underneath were soggy with salsa juice. Biscuits and gravy were also disappointing, with dry disks of bread soaking in thin white gruel.

We had more success with the lunch menu. Chicken piccata, plated with smashed new potatoes with garlic and chives, was our favorite dish. The tender, lightly breaded cutlet was fried to golden brown, and the sandy coating melted away with a faint trace of lemon, accented by the crisp and salty finish of fried capers.

The roasted turkey sandwich was a no-nonsense layering of house-roasted meat, sliced thickly and slathered with roasted-garlic basil mayonnaise on sourdough, with lettuce and tomato. The stack of pale meat, Swiss cheese and white bread looked a little insipid and could have benefited from toasting or more abundant toppings to break the pale monotony.

Our token vegetarian was delighted to find the meatless Chili Mac—a layering of homemade chili, Fritos and cheddar, topped with sour cream and chopped tomato, but the meal lacked the cheesy gooeyness that the menu promised.

Filet of steak stuffed with creamed spinach and topped with béarnaise was tough and chewy and lacked the "beautifully marinated" flavor touted on the menu, and the béarnaise had separated, giving it a curdled texture. But plated with decadent mashed sweet potatoes and a house salad for just $10.95, the steak was hard to criticize.

We enjoyed the comforting bowl of penne with chicken and sundried-tomato cream sauce, which was a sturdy meal if not a culinary tour de force. Nota bene: This hot dish made with heavy cream and Parmesan is different from the similarly named chicken and sundried tomato pasta, which is a cold dish made with mayonnaise.