Mud Street Café

A mysterious door in the corner of a building, does it lead to the shop with the window filled with unusual handcrafted items? Or, does it take us to that Mud Street Café we hear so much about? We descend the steep stairs to one last door, must be the place. WOW! Now that's a way to get your attention, putting the desert case right by the door.

The next thing we notice is the antique wooden bar running almost the entire length of the dining room. What atmosphere! Various tables and decorated chairs, not one that seems to go together but yet somehow form harmonious sets. Two other seating areas comprised of couches and chairs with ample reading materials really invite you to sit and enjoy.

Another nice touch is the abundant supply of games for those rare occasions when you have a wait, it's not often that you have to wait on your food and it's not long when you do, but as with any restaurant that's this popular there sometimes is a wait and it's nice to know the staff here has thought ahead to provide for your comfort when you do.

Sitting atop the fore mentioned bar in the mornings are that days fresh baked goods. Usually two flavors of "muffin tops" and one of scones. At the far end of the bar is the self serve coffee, complete with two different choices and a de-caf for those so inclined.

If you like pancakes this is the place. Mud Street cooks up the absolute best pancakes ever! Bar none. Sour cream is used in the batter, but don't worry you can't taste it, but it must be what makes these cakes so light and fluffy. Plain or blue berry they are served until lunch.

Eggs any way you want them except for poached come alone or in the Main Stay Breakfast (eggs, hash browns and toast) or Mud Street Breakfast which is the same as the previous only adds your choice of bacon, ham, or sausage.

Omelets come to the table stuffed full of the chosen ingredients, pick you own or choose from one of the house specialties; Spinach & Mushroom, Veggie, Mexican (grilled peppers and onions, refried beans, cheese, salsa and sour cream) or Greek (Grilled black olives, artichoke hearts, and spinach with Greek seasonings and feta cheese). Omelets come with toast and choice of hash brown or garlic cheese grits.

Two flavor of bagels, English Muffins, granola, fruit bowls, croissants, breakfast sandwiches consisting of a croissant with eggs cheese and choice of meat, and a breakfast wrap are even more choices on the very ample breakfast menu

A quick word about those hash browns is in order. These are not your "24 hour breakfast all night greasy spoon shredded potatoes" type of hash browns. How about big chunks of seasoned, fried golden Yukon? More like ranch or dinner fries

A few of the breakfast items carry over to lunch. Veggie hash browns (hash browns grilled with steamed veggies, cheese, salsa, and sprouts). Veggie grits are the garlic cheese grits covered with the same toppings as the veggie hash browns.

The Chef's Scramble is veggies, cheese, and eggs cooked in a fritata fashion served over hashbrowns and topped with salsa, sprouts and tomatoes.

An English muffin topped with eggs, cheese, tomatoes, and sprouts gets dubbed the Mud Muffin and is for those who prefer a smaller breakfast or a light brunch than the traditional fare.

Well, after walking that breakfast off on our hilly streets, you may do like many and decide breakfast was so good that you'll come back downstairs to see what lunch is like.

You won't be disappointed! Lunch (breakfast sometimes as well) usually has a few specials to choose from. These vary from time to time so be sure to come back often as you don't want to miss anything Chef LLee comes up with.

Burgers are 1/3 pound of beef on grilled buns and come in the basic burger, cheese burger and bacon cheese burger varieties. Other burger options include the mushroom Swiss burger heaped with Swiss and grilled mushrooms and onions. The Cajun features grilled peppers and onions, cheese and red hot sauce, this one is hot! All burgers come with the standard fixin's and chips.

Chicken comes to the bun as a grilled chicken sandwich, chicken club, or honey mustard chicken sandwich. Other tasty fowls are the Greek chicken sandwich(breast marinated in dill pickle juice, grilled with tomatoes and sour dough bread, then topped with feta cheese and olives). The Chicken Florentine is a grilled, seasoned breast topped with Swiss and grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, and spinach.

The Cajun wrap rolls up a grilled breast, peppers and onions, veggies, cheese and hot sauce inside of a herbed flour tortilla.

Put grilled veggies, onions and peppers, artichokes, and black olives, feta cheese and fresh spinach inside the tortilla, season it with Greek seasonings and Balsamic vinegar and this becomes the Mediterranean wrap.

Add grilled chicken to the Caesar salad, roll it in a tortilla and you have the delicious Chicken Caesar Wrap. Closing out the wrap choices include the California Wrap (Avocado, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, crunchy sprouts, sunflower seeds and Balsamic Vinaigrette) wrapped in an extra large garlic herb tortilla is a tasty vegetarian dish for a hot summer afternoon.

Quiche is available at lunch time and is made fresh daily. The selections change depending on what the cook decides to make on any given day. This usually includes a veggie version and a meat version. Two favorite choices are the Mediterranean and the tomato bacon.

Salads range from a house salad to the ample Chef Salad, Hummus, Caesar and Cajun. The house salad is available as a side or can come with the quiche and the soup(always homemade!) & salad combination.

Other sandwiches include a fabulous classic Ruben, a Turkey Bistro (turkey, bacon, cheddar and bistro on toasted sour dough), a BLT and grilled cheese. This is not your ordinary grilled cheese mind you, it's three types of cheeses with grilled mushrooms and spinach, sprouts and sun flower seeds on pumpernickel bread. Seriously delicious!

Finishing off the sandwich offerings are several croissant sandwiches. Chicken Salad, Ham & Cheese, and Turkey & Cheese. Last but not least is the amazingly Avocado & Cheese(cheddar, Swiss, spouts, avocado and sunflower seeds) served with your choice of salad dressing.

Still hungry? This takes us back to that display case at the front door that holds all those tempting deserts. Flan, variety of cakes, and a few pie choices make this an even harder decision that deciding what to have for breakfast or lunch. The deserts are made fresh weekly and once they run out that's it, they are gone until next week.

Mud Street Café features a full bar and a full selection of coffee drinks in addition to their standard coffee offerings.

The staff is friendly, polite, and eager to please as they tend to your dining needs. And the unique decor really really make for quite an enjoyable meal.

This place has become quite an active and respected art gallery in it's own right. The artwork of local artists adorns the walls and the back dining room has a constantly changing art show again featuring the works of local artists. This may is the third anniversary of the Mud Street Digital Art Show. This is quite a popular show as a few current and previous members of the kitchen staff are Digital Artists.

Mud Street is open Monday - Wednesday (closed for baking those great cakes and pies) and then again on Thursday and Friday from 8am - 3pm. During the busy season they stay open Friday and Saturday evenings for drinks, coffee and desert.