All’s Wells

When you talk to Barrie Schuster about her Café DeLuxe, you hear about neighborhood development and creating pride. And this little eatery happens to be the culmination of more than a decade of this Jefferson Award winner’s efforts to bring a sense of community to her Wells Avenue neighborhood. This is a historical building that was a laundry for more than 50 years before it closed in 2005 and then reopened in 2012 with a dozen units including her restaurant.

Breakfast and lunch are the mainstays, but the Café offers dinners on Friday and Saturday. Walk in to a cozy, art deco revival throwback décor with seating for 34 people and a butcher-block eat-at counter with room for eight. The staff is all energy and, no question, they love where they are and what they do.

Schuster, who creates everything on the menu, emphasizes that she takes great care to buy as much organic, local product as possible, and even her meats and poultry are organic certified humane (standards require nutritious diets without antibiotics or hormones, animals raised with shelter, resting areas, sufficient space and the ability to engage in natural behaviors).

The menu is really pretty simple but took a lot of thought, and just about everything on it can be swapped for gluten-free and vegan at no additional cost. Schuster created the menu to make everyone feel good about ordering anything without worrying about special diet considerations—truly a “one-size-feeds-all” menu.

At breakfast, naturals like cinnamon swirl French toast ($6), DeLuxe Scramble ($8) with home fries and fresh veggies, muesli ($4) organic oats ($4), a basic breakfast ($7), or my choice, an egg taco ($4 each). It came on an organic corn tortilla with melted cheddar cheese, fried egg, black bean salsa, sour cream and avocado. From the maize base to the sour cream atop, the layers of flavor were tasted with every bite. From corn to the savory bean salsa to the rich, buttery flavor of the avocado finished with the slightly tart, sour cream, a very satisfying nosh and just the right size for breakfast.

That brings me to another refreshing nuance about this place, Schuster designed all the servings to have “reasonable portions,” not wasting huge amounts of food that people don’t finish.

For lunch, they offer homemade soups daily ($3.50/cup-$4.50/bowl), salads, like kale with lemon, salt and olive oil ($4.50), topped with avocado and chopped almonds and a scoop of quinoa for a couple bucks more. My pick was the goddess ($6.50), generous with organic greens, cucumber, shredded carrots, shredded beets, garbanzo beans, sunflower sprouts and seeds, and avocado with lemon tahini dressing. It was Mother Nature’s bounty at its best—fresh. The dressing with the sesame seeds paste, a bit of garlic, lemon and spice made a great savory-tart complement.

There’s a simple, but creative selection of hot and cold sandwiches ($5-$6.50) and specialties ($6.50-$7.50) plus a kid’s menu ($3-$4). Apple cheddar melt ($5.50) caught my eye with Granny Smith apples, Tillamook sharp cheddar, bacon (extra $2) toasted open face on sourdough with a homemade Dijon mustard.

This rekindled an old tradition of marrying cheddar cheese with apple pie; throw in bacon and accessorize with tart, slightly bold mustard, and you have easily tasted flavors that are delicious memories for anyone over 50. Just a few wines and a few beers, and organic juices. I tried the housemade chai tea ($3.50) and found the cardamom and ginger and perhaps a little local honey most pleasing.

Schuster believes an individual’s neighborhood should serve a vital role in terms of offering camaraderie and acting as a support system, and have one common place people could gather and be … neighborly.