Oh, Katie, you she-devil you...

We went to Katie's Cafe and Bakery today for brunch. We were expecting to have the place almost to ourselves, since it's still new. However, we were (pleasantly) surprised to see them doing a brisk business for Sunday brunch. We ended up with a large group of seven, but they very quickly pushed together some tables and had us seated. They're still new, so there's some kinks in the service, but it was friendly and attentive and any mistakes were dealt with quickly.

On this visit, I had the ham and cheese omelet with a side of 8 Grain Bread toast. The omlet was great, with lots of gooey cheddar melting over the chopped ham bits. I think they use Boar's Head, or something of similar quality. It was good. My husband had eggs, bacon and toast today. Others in our party had pancakes, which were as big as a dinner plate, and biscuits and gravy. There were also bacon and cheese grits and toasted bagels being passed around. Everything was delicious and cooked well.

The table favorite seemed to be the biscuits and gravy. These are fresh, homemade biscuits, plit in half, topped with your choice of turkey or pork sausage and a gravy so thick you could cut it with a knife. No joke. It's that thick. It's also very rich.

On a previous visit, I was in the mood for lunch, so I ordered their French onion soup, which was a rich, beef broth, loaded with carmelized onions and topped with toasted bread and melted cheese. They occasionally have specials. Last week it was the "Tailgate Special" which was barbeque pork sandwiches, topped with a vinegar dressed coleslaw. Today, it was shrimp and grits. Their lunch menu includes a small sampling of soups, besides the French onion, sandwiches and salads.

The desserts are where Katie's truly shines though. True to it's name, the bakery case dominates the front entrance. Today it was full of a selection of mouth watering cakes, cupcakes, cookies and pastries. We ended up with a to go bag of bagels to make lunch with this week. I'm a terrible snacker, and they keep putting complimentary things on my table to get me to come back, so I've sampled quite a few of their offerings. So far, I've tried the blueberry muffin (yum), croisants (yummy), cake (super yum), brownies (oh, god, so yum) and the kringle (yum, yum, yum).

A full cake (they had carrot, white chocolate raspberry and chocolate ganauche today) will set you bake $25, which I think is pretty reasonable. The cupcake version, which is big enough to share, is $3.50. Loaves of bread are all under $5 a loaf and it looks like they have a pretty good turnover, so it should be pretty fresh.

This is looking more and more like a regular fixture in our weekends. As we left, we all made plans to return next Sunday, but just a bit earlier to try to avoid the crowd.