Normally, the opening of a new coffee shop downtown wouldn’t draw that much of my attention. I mean, they’re a dime a dozen. (Or maybe I should say “a buck a Star," 'cuz those things are everywhere!) But when I saw that Catbird Seat alum Ryan Poli had signed up to design a new menu for the Cafe at Bobby (230 Fourth Ave. N.) while he continues to finalize details for his impending fine dining restaurant at the downtown boutique hotel, I was intrigued. When a few friends invited me to try out the new spot, we basically ordered the menu on opening day earlier this week.
The new cafe just inside the front door at Bobby benefits from an expansive front patio, which should provide for a great urban sidewalk cafe vibe once the weather allows. The inside space is also quite attractive, with the mandatory reclaimed barn wood cladding the coffee bar and cozy tables set with intentionally mismatched plates and glasses. Open daily from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the Cafe at Bobby offers custom coffee drinks featuring beans from the beloved local rotors at OSA (which they also offer at retail if you’d like to take a bag home with you), as well as beer, wine and a limited cocktail menu if you’re looking for a festive brunch.
Since I was immediately impressed that they had chosen OSA as the backbone of their coffee program, I investigated which other local vendors they were using, because I remembered that Chef Poli is a big proponent of shopping locally whenever possible. Right there on a big board over the ordering stand was a list of some of my favorites, along with a few new discoveries I wasn’t privy to yet.
The McBobby
Their breakfast sausage comes from Bear Creek Farm, and Chef Poli admitted he had to do some begging to pry that precious pork away from Leeann and Bill Cherry, who usually keep their sausage pretty close to the chest. It was wheedling well worth the effort, because that spicy pork patty is the base of an amazing breakfast sandwich they call the McBobby. Sure, it’s a knockoff of one of the two national clown-based restaurant chains, but Ronald never dreamed of serving a house-made muffin stuffed with that Bear Creek Sausage, a fluffy egg frittata, American cheese and a sweet and savory onion jam. At $15, it ain’t cheap, but I’d hold it up as a brunch/lunch option against most burgers in town in that price range. It was big enough to share.
If you think avocado toast has jumped the shark, you simply haven’t had Chef Poli’s Avocado Toasty yet. Explaining that he thinks most versions of the ubiquitous breakfast menu items are just guacamole smeared on bread, Chef Poli set out to create a standout version. He started out with amazing slabs of grilled sourdough bread from Ornette Bread, a name I’d seen on menus but had never experienced until my visit to Bobby. Poli promised it was “the best sourdough in town,” and if it isn’t, I’d like to see (and eat) its equal!
On top of that perfectly funky sourdough sits another of those frittatas, a schmear of Brillat-Savarin cheese, chive and red onions pickled in house to cut through the fattiness of the cheese and avocado, which has been thinly sliced and artfully tiled on top of the toast. My timing is rarely good enough to cut into an avocado at peak freshness, so I really appreciated these treats.
An adjunct version of the toasty might have been even better than the expected one. The Beet and Ricotta Toasty features a rich whipped buffalo ricotta with marinated red beets, roast peppers, thinly sliced radishes and herbs on another slice of that Ornette-baked goodness. Let’s just say I can’t sell beets to the other eater in my household, so now I know where to go next time I need a fix.
Oh, and I haven’t even mentioned the sweet side of the menu yet! The kitchen prepares a rotating assortment of fresh pastries each morning, including buttery and flaky croissants, one of which was stuffed with Nutella. (That’s just cheating in my eyes.) Other pastries I sampled were highlighted by airy turnovers with cherry and apple compotes, a delicious, yet restrained cinnamon roll where you could actually taste the spice over the sugar, and something with chocolate chips that disappeared before I could get a full read on it. And these pastries are only $5 apiece, which may sound expensive until you realize that a) these are hotel prices, and b) you’d pay almost that much for a Cinnabon at the airport, something you should not do.
One thing we didn’t get to try were the offerings from local cult favorites Conny and Jonny Doughnuts. From their start as a specialty menu item at Pinewood Social to today, when Constance and Jonathan Farro can pretty much sell out at will weekly just from pre-orders, these are an “if-you-know-you-know” indulgence. Now that you know, if you happen to enter Cafe at Bobby soon after a delivery, that's what you need to order.
Chef Poli also brought out an amazing gravlax dish he was experimenting with made with Norwegian salmon. Not as salty as most smoked salmon, it was fantastic on yet my third slice of Ornette, along with a high-end soft cheese. It’s not on the main menu yet, but it should appear in some form soon. (I hope!)
Other local purveyors that Poli is working with include Mr. Aaron’s Goods, Bloomsbury Farm and Maypop Sparkling Water, so you can see that the chef really believes in sourcing as much as possible from as closely as possible. This is a big change from “Big Coffee,” and almost unheard of in hotel coffee shops. While not confirmed yet, they’re even thinking about offering validated parking to encourage locals to drop by for a quick cuppa and a morning meeting, but it’s really easy to walk there from almost anywhere in the downtown business district. I know I will be.
