Vive la Vie

In this small town it is not unusual for cafés to close for the summer, so too for this café that pretentiously calls itself French Brasserie & Café. They've just re-opened after a three week break. 
The one time we've been there we only had quiche lorraine with a side salad which wasn't exceptional, but it sure beat the ones from the freezer. The menu did look intriguing; and we would come here more often if they didn't have such weird opening hours. On Sundays they only open at midday, Mondays they're entirely closed (and I thought only hairsalons did that ?!), the rest of the week they only open at 3:30 pm. I guess it's more of a 'dinner only' place.
Anyway, one of these days we're going back to test their entrecote, mousse au chocolat, and crevette salad. They have a good selection of French wine as well. For the sweet tooth they do a variety of tartes.
A word of advice. Don't sit outside - you'll be staring at the back of a rather ugly building - which someone decided to have painted a horrible eye-searing blue!
The inside, however, is nicely furnished and decorated with bistro-style knick-knacks.

It's worth a try, when they're open.

Café Solo

Yesterday I had a meeting with a potential new client in a town about half-an-hours drive from here. Since I was only offered weak tea and a single, plain biscuit I was ravenous by the time we finished.
I was walking along the main pedestrian area when I spotted Café Solo, which instantly reminded me of all the hip cafés I used to frequent in Amsterdam/London/Berlin. I went inside and was pleasantly surprised that they had a large non-smoking section. The interior was all bleached wood with squashy leather seats and a sofa corner, nice warm lighting (which the sharply dressed waitress later told me changed according to the time of day), and stylish touches here and there. The menu is quite varied for a café. Not only do they serve snacks such as 'panini' and 'crostini' with delectable toppings, they do Asian food too! And the cake selection is simply scrumptious. There's everything from traditional apple cake to healthy yoghurt-cherry cake to crunchy apricot-streusel tart. Yummy!
I wanted savoury on this occasion, so I selected the panini italiano, expecting two small slices of toasted bread with a bit of tomato and cheese on top. Instead I was served two HUGE slices of soft, doughy bread topped with juicy tomato sugo and cheese that had been lightly browned in the oven plus a fresh and healthy side salad with a lightly herbed yoghurt dressing. I got real tea, too (not the tea-bags). Wow, I thought... and all this for just 5 Euros.

And they have nice mellow music in the background, too.

I'll definitely be back and I'm going to take my friends along. They seat about 120 indoors and (when it's not raining) they have additional 100 seats on the terrace facing the historic public square.

I'm always happy when I get to add a new place to my 'where-to-go-for-coffee' list.

Oops. Sorry forgot to tell you guys where it is:

Hotel-Café am Schloss Raesfeld

Tip - look out for the painted mushrooms on top of the
two gate posts.

Cheerio!

Café

I don't usually leave my desk during the week very often (except for making endless cups of tea and cooking lunch), but a friend of mine managed to persuade me to join her for coffee at this new café she heard about...
I immediately surmised that she didn't want to test it alone in case it turned out to be another one of those dusty coffee shops with plastic tablecloths favoured by curly-haired grannies!

Anyway, she picked me up in the afternoon and we drove for about twenty minutes along the country road when we came upon this charming half-timbered house covered in ivy. Too idyllic for words!

It turns out the owner (a therapist) opened up this café as a 'hobby' - but the people kept coming in droves, and when we arrived it was already buzzing. So now she gets up pretty early each day to bake a couple of fabulous cakes along with a few tasty savoury snacks. They serve delicious coffee and the tea comes in these enormous white mugs. Best of all - it's affordable. Her husband helps her out, too. It seems she's spending more & more time at the café than in her office.

The clientele is mixed. Thirty-something couples, tour groups and yes, the ubiquitious grannies I mentioned earlier. But all in all, the atmosphere was lively, friendly and no one pressured us to shift our bottoms - even after we sat there for almost two hours ;-)

Yup. I can definitely recommend it to visitors. It's also child-friendly with kids books to keep them entertained.
In summer they do BBQ out on the terrace. In winter they make a cosy fire indoors. Hey - and
if you still feel depressed after stuffing yourself with apple cake, cream and cappuccino you can still go and book a session next door...