Although we have all grown to love the internet and all that it has to offer, we are sometimes reminded about the things that it cannot tell us... Friday night I was going to meet some friends at happy hour and had the task (once again thanks to the blog) of choosing were we should go. I knew I wanted to try Clyde Common, which I plan to do soon, but while I perused the internet looking for happy hours, times, menus, drink specials...I came across West Cafe's website. I asked Sofi and Katie B if they had ever been there, they hadn't, and we decided to try it.
Arriving at 6pm, since their happy hour lasts until 7pm, we sat in a booth by the window of this small cafe. The happy hour consists of $1 off food, beer, and wine from the bar menu. We each ordered a glass of chardonnay, while Laura went for a mojito. For food we decided to share the quesadilla, portobello mushroom sandwich, 1/2 steamed artichoke, and coriander chicken skewers.
The quesadilla was good because it was a tortilla with black beans and cheese served with a pineapple salsa, but I felt like I could have made it myself.
The portobello mushroom sandwich served on a foccacia was quite tasty, but the side salad didn't float our boat.
All of us were looking forward to the steamed artichoke, but I think all ended up slightly disappointed by the slightly understeamed 1/2 artichoke with a drab dipping sauce.
Finally the skewers, served with plain but probably healthy vegetable rice, were tender, but overwhelmed by their sauce.The wine was good. We ordered another glass.
Now you might be wondering what the internet didn't tell us about West Cafe. It did not tell us what we quickly realized...we would be BY FAR the youngest people in the restaurant. The cafe stayed consistently busy and obviously caters to a 60+ age group. I don't think the waiter had checked id's in a while cause he seemed slightly lost searching for our DOB's.Maybe I should have known since West Cafe plays live Jazz Saturday nights, but still closes at 10pm like it does all other days of the week, except Sunday when it's only open 10-2pm for brunch. But otherwise there was little indication that we were venturing into a restaurant designed for people a few years our senior. Now don't get me wrong, we didn't mind. I regularly go to dinner with people of all ages. My grandparents, though they are extraordinarily hip, my parents, their friends, aunts, uncles, etc... but I don't usually find myself somewhere that I feel slightly out of place in. I'll be back in 40 years if it's still around...maybe.
