Stop #9 - Tasi Cafe

One of our restaurant odyssey "rules" is that the restaurant be on High Street, or visible from High Street. This is what I call the L'Antibes rule, which you'll understand later in our tour. Tasi is one of those that's visible from High Street (barely). It's tucked away on Pearl Alley in a space that was once Pistachio Bakery, though Tasi has been there a little over five years now.

"Tasi" is Tasi Rigsby, wife of Kent Rigsby, and together they own this cafe, Rigsby's Kitchen (soon to make an appearance in this blog) and Eleni-Christina Bakery. Tasi Cafe serves breakfast all day and they have a lunch menu as well. We went on a Saturday morning for breakfast.

It's not a huge space, but there are several tables in a variety of sizes. When we first arrived we were able to order at the counter right away and there was a 4-top table available. While we were there it got pretty crowded; we were able to move to a 2-top to allow a family of three to have our table.

I ordered the poached eggs with black bean cake and jalapeño butter sauce (left) and Aaron ordered the Greek scrambled eggs. Both came with a side of sourdough which was rustic and delicious, crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside.

When I cut into my eggs I discovered this:

The yolks were cooked hard. Now by this point the place was hopping busy and nothing tasted bad so I intended to eat it, but I was somewhat disappointed. But then the server came over and said that the chef was unhappy with the poaching of the eggs so he re-did them without my ever mentioning anything. Two thumbs up for this kind of service!

New eggs, more jalapeño butter sauce, much better!

The black bean cake was spicy and provided a good balance with the eggs. Aaron also thoroughly enjoyed his Greek scrambled eggs. I'm not sure what the seasoning was on those, but it made the dish. Aaron declared "this is the first time I wish we didn't have to wait to come back." But as we know, it's not the first time he said that, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

By the time we left, this is what it looked like from the door:

Note to the two guys who were at their table before we sat down, and still there when we left, long after they had eaten their food: not cool, dudes.

Coming next week: Betty's Fine Food and Spirits.

Stay Tuned,

Spidey and The Gila

Restaurant Stop #3 - Cup o Joe

www.cupojoe.com

I have to confess that Cup o Joe is the one place on our list that we will visit more than once. That happens on Sunday mornings when we don't get coffee made at home so we swing by here on our way to church. We decided to allow this caveat only because we get the coffee to go. But now we had arrived at the scheduled visit, so on a brisk Saturday morning, Aaron and I walked to Cup o Joe for some breakfast.



For those readers who aren't familiar, Cup o Joe is our local alternative to the "evil" Starbucks empire. They have eight locations in the Columbus area, including one at the airport where Aaron always gets pre-flight coffee. It is an offshoot of Stauf's Coffee Roasters, also local, and they partner with locally-owned suppliers for the bagels and sweets they sell.

Aaron ordered his usual 7:01 A.M., which is the coffee of the day plus a shot of espresso. I usually get an Almond Joy latte, but today I decided on a seasonal coffee, Pumpkin Spice, to which I added cream and cinnamon. I had an onion bagel with cream cheese, Aaron had a slice of roasted vegetable quiche, and we shared an apricot scone. I don't know where the scones come from, but they are delicious, and the apricot was a new flavor for us; we'll be getting it again for sure... when we can go back.

Obviously, this isn't one of the more exciting stops, but it's still a solid choice for a weekend breakfast, and their coffee rocks. This particular location is also connected to Mojoe Lounge, which is the next stop on our journey.


Stay Tuned,

The Gila