Oh, if only I'd been there #1


The Arbor Café was a small restaurant around the corner from the Statesman Journal serving nouveau northwest cuisine for dinner and creative menus for breakfast and lunch. Its décor was mismatched tables and chairs, dark-green paint, white trim, trelliswork and vining plants. Diners ordered at the front counter for breakfast and lunch, at one’s table for dinner. A glass-fronted case with a top shelf displayed their glory of desserts: spectacular layer cakes prominently offered on the top shelf; a bevy of more cake slices, pasties, puddings and a variety of desserts cooled below.

Somedays we SJ’ers went there for our morning coffee run. The tempting aroma of baking garlic croutons was so enticing I often considered ordering a bowl, hold the salad or soup. Usually I got the filo apricot Danish, an ambrosial treat along with a great cup of joe. Sometimes I’d get budino, a rice pudding with little bits of chocolate baked on the bottom. I regularly ate lunch or dinner there.

One afternoon Tim and Angie Sly stopped in for dessert and coffee. Tim pondered his choices – it is hard to make that final decision – and to his horror, inadvertently knocked the cakes on the top shelf, domino fashion, onto the desserts below. He took out the entire dessert counter in one fell swoop.

Meanwhile, Angie got laughing so hard she had to leave the café. Had I been there, I’d have been right outside with her, laughing uproariously.

Tim didn’t have to pay for anything.

I didn't tell this nearly as well as Tim. He had me laughing so hard I was crying. But still, I wanted to share!

Its closed now – bummer.

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