| Sonoma Café
In the last few years, bistros have been very much in vogue. Patricia Wells published her now-famous cookbook, Bistro Cooking, which is full of nourishing recipes including no less than eight for potato gratin. In Calgary, restaurants like the original Entre Nous brought great, simple food to the table in an environment that was decidedly un-stuffy.
I'm not sure, though, that bistro cooking is limited to steak frites – in fact, bistro cooking is more of an attitude. The dictionary definition of "bistro" is "a small or unpretentious restaurant," and the best lunch version I know of is the Sonoma Café (240 - 520 5th Ave. S.W., phone 233-0111), located in the Plus-15 between Chevron Plaza and the Aquitaine Tower.
The Sonoma Café only has about 50 seats inside plus a few alfresco (in the Plus-15, that is), its decor is understated and the service is casual and efficient. In fact, it's a bit of a secret – I've never seen it advertised, and as it's not open for dinner, the clientele consists mostly of downtown office workers. But the Sonoma Café is one of these places that, once you go, you always go back.
I was surprised at the variety of breakfasts available at the Sonoma Café. My pet peeve about the Calgary restaurant breakfast is that you can't seem to get a good full breakfast and a decent cup of coffee in the same place, except at the Sonoma Café. There are two eggs with bacon, a breakfast burrito, granola, omelettes, and a damn good latté or cappuccino, made with Torrefazione Italia coffee. There's also a good selection of homemade muffins or scones, although to get these you have to be there early because they seem to sell out.
But lunch is what makes the Sonoma Café a great bistro – the food is plentiful, well presented, nourishing and tastes fantastic. It's also inexpensive, in that all the main courses are less than $10. The mushroom soup was creamy (no flour-thickened goop here) with lots of pepper. The Chinese chicken salad is highly addictive – I think the cooks must poach or steam the chicken in a salty Chinese broth, rather than grilling it, then they toss it in the green salad, rather than slicing it and leaving it on top. This makes for an appealing salad, and is much better than a caesar salad with a grilled chicken breast perched on top looking alone and friendless.
There are usually a few pasta choices (the menu changes regularly) as well as a special – the chicken pesto penne was great and had lots of basil, and I haven't tried the pasta with Spolumbo sausage, but it looks promising as well. The BLT&A (A is for avocado) was a great guilty pleasure (bacon + avocado = heart failure), while the pork tenderloin sandwich with apple on a baguette was similarly good, although the pork was a bit overcooked. And you have to love a place that makes a good meat loaf sandwich (with homemade meat loaf, no less). All these sandwiches come with soup or salad, for less than $10.
It's refreshing to think that the food actually matters at the Sonoma Café, not the surroundings. The ownership have caught lightning in a bottle – let's hope it stays that way. |
