Nice Cafe

Talk about your truth in advertising. This really IS a nice café. I have never met sweeter wait staff; they’re downright perky. I have been here a lot, and I’ve never caught one of these guys having a bad day. They remember your name, they remember your «usual,» and they’re not afraid to offer you a taste of something new. They just installed one of those Nescaf machines that you see around, one that makes hot or cold coffee based drinks. For the entire month of February, the Nice offered their customers free pulls from the machine, to test out how it would go over. As far I as could tell by the line up, the experiment was a success.
The look of the place is classic bistro, with lots of warm wood, globe lights and fairly unobtrusive music piped in. There’s also a big screen TV, sound off, but perma-​tuned to ESPN, in what I take to be a bid for the manly-​man trade. The menu is simple, but oh man, what they do with simple! Everything is fresh, generously portioned and cooked to order. On my first trip I tried a plain old Philly cheesesteak. I thought steak could have used a bit more seasoning, but it was all real, tender meat, thinly sliced and piled up high. The bread was delicious, crusty outside and chewy inside, and perfectly balanced with the steak in each bite. The real revelation was my next visit when I tried the grilled salmon quesadilla. I’m not talking about a few flakes of canned salmon smothered in Cheez Whiz. I got huge chunks of fresh grilled salmon, grilled red onions with a just a hint of caramelization, and neatly diced tomatoes nestled in melted pepper jack cheese shreds, dotted with capers. The paninis rock out loud, too. I dragged a vegetarian friend there for lunch, figuring she could grab one of the salads, while I indulged in a cubano panini. Now, I haven’t had a really traditional cuban since I left Tampa almost two years ago, but this one was so good, I not only didn’t mind the little twist they threw in with spicy mortadella and provolone taking the place of the salami and swiss, I even had the fleeting thought that this might be an improvement on the original. Mama Guava, forgive me!
Nice Café offers a variety of sides, but the french fries here are kind of flabby, and the beer battered onion rings, while crispy and delicious, aren’t much different than you might get at BK. So, I say skip them both and go with the Café Chips. They make these homemade potato chips in house; they slice them thin, fry them to light brown perfection and serve them with ranch sauce. You can get a heaping basketful as a side with just about anything on the menu, and they are so light you need to dip them into the sauce to keep them from floating away.
Lastly, I have to say a word about the crepes. Omihgod, the crepes. This is the most inspired idea I have run across in ages. We usually associate crepes with some fancy shmancy menu at ‘Chez Snooty,’ totally forgetting that in France, crepes are about as ubiquitous as Mickey D’s fries. So, why not have three different kinds of sweet crepes on the dessert menu of a casual dining place. So far, I’ve only had the lemon-sugar…like summer on a plate. I’ll report back when I’ve worked my way through the rest.
Nice Café is so much better than nice… it’s just about perfect. In fact, the only fault I can find is that this wonderful food and laid back atmosphere is only available for lunch during the work week. If they were open on the weekends, I think I’d make it my permanent brunch spot. As it is, the next time a co-​worker suggests going out to get a nice lunch, tell him you know just the place.