Well-seasoned

This is literally the Daughters. Barb Giacomini and her two daughters, Skye Emery and Bianca Giacomini, own, operate and reside in the Daughters Café. It’s on the corner of West First and Bell streets in a 100-year-old Victorian-style house. These are some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They just moved here from Orange County, Calif., and they have brought some back roads cheer and hospitality with them.

The house itself is beautiful and rich in history. The front yard has a large patio with plenty of tables nestled under two giant Christmas trees. Yes, they are Christmas trees the original owner planted in the ground decades ago. The patio is surrounded by lavender and rosemary, and tucked in the corner is a 100-year-old lilac bush.

As you walk up the stairs to the wide open front door, there’s a box of sidewalk chalk for kids to play with, and, inside, the pleasant voices of the Giacomini girls can be heard as they coordinate their table service. You can tell they are sisters by the way they talk to each other—no holding back.

Daughters Café is open for breakfast and lunch from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and then opens again for a short but sweet dessert and coffee serving from 7-9 p.m. The menu is small and concise. It contains hearty, unique and seasonal breakfast and lunch items, such as the panzanella with stuffed squash blossoms ($9) or the Egyptian style chicken with yogurt sauce ($10). The Web site, www.daughterscafe.com, will tell you more about the types of seasonal cuisine offered. I prefer to eat seasonally versus a year-round menu because tomatoes don’t taste good in the wintertime, and squash blossoms are not available in the fall. When you eat with the seasons, the food tastes so much better.

My girlfriend, Cherie, and I stopped by on a Sunday evening after we had dinner at another local favorite of mine, Sezmu. We held off from ordering desserts at Sezmu with some kind of blind faith that we were going to enjoy the desserts at Daughters Café. We were right. The desserts are amazing. It takes a pretty damned good dessert to impress me, and I was impressed beyond belief.

The bread pudding ($5) was served in an individual casserole dish and laced with fresh cream poured over the top of the warm, nutmeg-infused bread custard. As rich as it sounds, it was actually light-tasting. Bianca said her mom got the recipe from a woman in Belize.

The Mexican pot de crème ($3) was spiked with a bit of cinnamon and chili. It was served in a demitasse espresso cup with a tiny dollop of freshly whipped cream and a single blueberry garnish. Cherie and I were scraping the sides of the cup looking for one more bite. Last but not least were the beignets ($5), a New Orleans favorite. These little fried gems of dough were cooked perfectly, dusted with powdered sugar and served on a plate lined with a doily. What a treat. It was my first beignet experience, and I am glad that it was a good one. Along with the scrumptious desserts, we enjoyed a delicious coffee ($2) and a café au lait ($3) made with coffee beans that are locally wood-fire roasted. It was one of the best dessert courses I have ever eaten, and this is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in Reno.