Last Sunday the hubby and I revisited Sandra Bullock's little cafe, called Walton's Fancy & Staple, over in Austin. I liked it a lot on our first visit, but I think I fell in love with it this time. It may even join the ranks of Onion Creek Cafe and Mima's to become one of my "IT" places.
Hubby and I love to go exploring, and try lots of new places in the process. Very few of them, however, have what it takes to call me back over and over again. I'm not even sure I can explain what it takes for a restaurant to do that. It takes a whole lot more than a cute decorating theme. Walton's skipped over the cutesy theme scheme and went with having a real florist and a real bakery sharing the premises instead. I love real!
It takes more than good food, too, though this stuff is fairly awesome. I don't even like sandwiches, as a rule, but this one with it's paper thin roast beef and creamy horseradish with bits of blue cheese, set off by the perfect counterpoint of spicy-crisp arugula, actually made me moan. A sandwich, for pete's sake. And the bread...oh. my. stars. The bread! Just look at this pretzel bun they put my hubby's ham, gruyere, and dijon mustard on!
Turns out Bullock has a sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, who decided to ditch her career as manager of Bullock's production company, then followed her heart to become a master baker. She helped develop a lot of the recipes for this cafe, though her own business is in Vermont. She also has a couple of cookbooks under her belt, including Confections of a Closet Master Baker. She blogs here.
But, like I said, it takes more than good food, cute decor, or even reasonable prices, if I'm going to come back time and again. It takes a certain je ne sais quois... That french phrase was my tip off. To be an "IT" place, a cafe must have a certain feel. One must be more than comfortable there. One must feel...at home. As I looked around me, at the couples lingering over coffee with their Sunday papers or meeting up with friends, people typing away on their laptops or just soaking up some sun at the tables outside, I realized that they were all doing exactly what I had read about when I was researching French bistros and cafes -- they were treating this place as if it were an extension of their own homes. C'est bon!
This makes me so happy! What makes you happy?
Posts
2 comments:
OMG, you are giving me so many good ideas. I am sure I will visit this place on a regular basis. Bread is so important in a restaurant's food quality. Ambience equally so. Waltons looks to have this down pat. Will try it this weekend while in Austin. Thanks, Miss Becky. ps, Do you think I could have your email address?
Sure, in fact, I could have sworn I had it over there in the sidebar somewhere, as in "would love to hear from you at ...", but I sure don't see it now. Anyway, it's becky.lane(at)vownet(dot)net -- only use the actual @ and dot symbols (I just write it that way on-line to avoid it being picked up automatically for spam purposes.
Post a Comment