The experience

It cooled off this weekend, and I wanted to find a nice patio where we could eat lunch.  As always, we had a laundry list of errands to run include going to Central Market, so I tried to think of a place near Central Market that would have a patio that was not one of the other 300 restaurants we’ve been to already this year!  I remembered that there was a cafe at Obzeet, a neat little store with imported goods.  So we headed out to Obzeet.  We arrived at were pleasantly surprised with some of the changes since we last ate here years and years ago. 

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The kids were immediately drawn to the pond in the middle of the patio area and the “troll bridge” as Benji calls it.  They wanted to go up and down and up and down the bridge.  I just wanted to sit down.  We were seated in semi shade (luckily not too hot) and we let the kids wander around but kept a close eye on them.

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We picked our lunch and put in our order.  The kids came back over and Benji was wet with sweat, I suggested Ogre take them inside to look around the store.  Ogre looked at me like I was crazy, but obliged.  They were back after two minutes.  Too many breakables…everywhere.  He said that even though he was carrying Benji there was stuff hanging from the ceiling that he wanted to mangle.  Awesome.

At one point, who Ogre says was the husband of the one of the owners (he know them peripherally) went up to the kids.  Ogre was afraid he was telling them to go sit down and wanted me to check on them.  I started to go over and saw that, no, he was being nice and showing them the Koi fish in the pond.  I decided they were okay.  Then the guy went in and grabbed a bunch of dum dums for the kids.  Great.  That’s awesome before lunch!  I told Ogre that I hoped he told them to ask me first. 

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The kids came running over with their sugar on a stick and Benji wanted to open his, but I talked them into waiting and being allowed to have it after dinner.  They seemed okay with that except that Benji had mini melt down trying to put his in his pocket.

Pretty soon, their food came out, so we had them both sit down to eat.  They did not have penne pasta, so we had to make do with fettuccine with marinara sauce.  Very messy, I learned and hard for Benji to eat because he is a dipper. 

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Ogre and I enjoyed our sandwiches and the kids played with their dum dums to entertain themselves.  Once they finished, they ran off again to sit on the stage (they have live music on Fridays and Saturdays in the evening).  I told them they could have ONE of their dum dums.  Of course, once they finished that one, they wanted another.  Mean ol’ mommy said no.

We finished up and took one more look around the store, a quick look for our pocketbook’s safety and ended on to Central Market.

 

The food

I am going to call it sandwiches and salads.  They also have something called Tremazzino’s -pita filled with cheese and filling of your choice.

photoI ordered the breakfast sandwich.  I couldn’t decide between the chicken salad, the seafood salad, and the breakfast sandwich.  The waitress said she votes for the breakfast sandwich.  It comes on either a bagel or croissant, I chose the croissant and it has egg, tomato, turkey and cheese.  I was a little worried that the sandwich would seem dry, but it wasn’t.  It was actually a really good sandwich.  It came with cantaloupe and chips. 

photoOgre ordered the Veggie Tremazzino and it’s filled with cheese, spinach, artichoke hearts, mushrooms, and olives.  He apparently had the same worry as me (not saucy), but it wasn’t.  He said it was excellent, and I agree, very good -nice and flavorful.

photoThe kids ordered fettuccine with marinara sauce and it seemed to like it.  Ogre joked that I needed to try it to see if it was al dente referring to my review of Chicago’s Gourmet Pizza when I said the spaghetti wasn’t al dente enough and gave the restaurant 2 stars (he went back and changed my star rating to a 4 (!) and won’t let me live that down). Ha ha.  Still makes me laugh.

 

The service

Average.  She was around, kept the drinks filled.  Food came out pretty quickly.

 

The kids

I thought it was kid friendly, no kids activities, but they have a kids menu and the restaurant (inside and out) seems laid back. 

We are glad that we found this spot again. It was great for a nice lunch on a nice patio for when the weather is nice.  They have also expanded the restaurant inside and have quite  a bit of seating.  We’ll definitely be back.

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