Restaurant review: Sarasota’s Café Du Monde makes some tasty breakfast/lunch combos
April 7th, 2009 by Brian Ries in Arts, Food and Drink, News, Sarasota-Manatee
Ed. note: This piece is part of Brian Ries’ look at new North Trail spots. Read about Jewel’s Diner, almost right across the street from Café Du Monde here.
A number of places have occupied the spot where Café Du Monde opened last September. (Just so we’re clear: not that Café Du Monde, in New Orleans, pictured at right.) Several coffee houses and a Jamaican restaurant tried to make it here, but none had the stamina to survive the long summer doldrums, a problem compounded by a clientele drawn heavily from the nearby colleges. But good news for Du Monde: I have never seen as many people in the location as I did at noon last Wednesday.
Café Du Monde was opened by a restaurant veteran, albeit a restaurant veteran who got out of the business in 1999 after selling his high-end Cleveland restaurant. Not that Du Monde is fine-dining. Like many of its predecessors in this spot, Du Monde is essentially a coffee shop, its caffeinated brews complemented by a simple menu of light bites. Unlike most coffee shops, though, there’s a guy in the kitchen who knows what he’s doing.
Take Du Monde’s touch with an egg.
On a simple sandwich, the eggs are scrambled, tender, moist and well-seasoned, served up on a giant croissant. In quiche — two varieties most days — the eggs take a back-up role, serving mostly to tie together fillings like spinach, mushroom and goat cheese into a solid, towering slice.
Sandwiches are uniformly tasty and toasted, including a concoction of grilled eggplant, sharp provolone, bright goat cheese and tomatoes that comes out gooey and crisp in turns. There’s also homemade soups, damn fine roasted potatoes, rich and spiced potato salad and fruit cups.
Pastries are also a safe bet — mainly because they’re brought in from the reliable folks at C’Est La Vie, along with morning croissants and some breads. The restaurant also makes its own desserts on occasion, like fruity flan or decadent bread pudding.
I suspect Café Du Monde might also be enjoying some overflow from its new neighbor: Funtoysia. Having one of the area’s best toy shops across the parking lot likely means a lot of area families who never would have been tempted to stop in will be paying this previosuly cursed location a visit.
Jewel’s Diner
3 stars
4900 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 360-2637
April 7th, 2009 at 11:32 am
[...] Brian Ries placed an observative post today on Restaurant review: Sarasotaâ [...]
April 9th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
[...] stage, and discusses all the eating he’s done lately: reviewing Jewel’s Diner and Café Du Monde, checking out a couple new Sarasota yogurt spots and previewing New York, New York, which opened in [...]