Sept
4, 2003 — Is
there anyone living in Bellingham who hasn't been to the Little
Cheerful Café?
This Bellingham staple, perched on the busy corner of Holly
Street and Railroad Avenue, offers my idea of the ideal
breakfast and lunch. Apparently, judging from the crowds that
mill around outside most weekend mornings, this is a popularly
held opinion.
As you walk in the door, you're faced with the undeniable
evidence of my favorite item on Little Cheerful's menu: the hash
browns.
During a recent Saturday morning visit with friends, the
grill was piled high with potatoes. I eyed them longingly as we
were shown to our seat, knowing it would only be a few minutes
until I could sample my share.
Yellow and green walls brighten up the compact space, made
all the brighter by large octagon-shaped windows that let in the
light.
The cooking and food prep areas take up almost as much square
footage as the dining room itself, blurring into one lively,
casual atmosphere.
Cheerful is truly the best way to describe the service and
ambience of this charming café. We were greeted with a warm
hello and received first-rate table service.
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The Little Cheerful Café
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Location: 133 E. Holly St.
Phone: 738-8824.
Hours:
7 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday and Sunday
Menu items sampled:
Full breakfast with meat $7.50
Bacon and cheddar omelet $7.50
Short stack with blueberries $4.00
Denver browns $7.25
Tony's Coffee $1.50
Large orange juice $2.25
Cheerful Clubhouse $7.75 |
Whenever an order was ready, the line cook would announce it
with the server's name, "Kate, please!" From the back
of the room the server would ricochet a polite "thank
you!"
The four of us seated around the two tables pushed together
have been at the Little Cheerful enough times to know what we
wanted: an omelet for me, pancakes for Susan, Denver browns for
Tasha, and full breakfast with meat for my husband
— and Tony's Coffee all around.
All of our meals were served on colorful Fiestaware,
accompanied by a solo slice of toast. You can request two
pieces, but it's amazing how much bread goes to waste if you
automatically serve a pair. And with the heaping servings that
come off the grill, one piece of toast always seems to be
enough.
My husband's full breakfast with meat was a traditional take
on diner breakfast, minus the excess grease. Two farm-fresh eggs
were scrambled and served with four slices of savory bacon and a
mountain of hash browns with grilled onions. Of course, you can
request your eggs prepared any way you like and choose from
bacon, ham, sausage patties or sausage links.
My bacon and cheddar omelet was bursting with large pieces of
the same lean, crisp bacon. Little Cheerful serves its omelets
in a compact square, made of three eggs.
I like my hash browns pure, without grilled onions, and
lavish the soft-on-the-inside, crispy-brown-on-the-outside
slivers of spuds with ketchup and extra salt. If I could only
eat one food for the rest of my life, these tasty tubers would
fit the bill.
Susan ordered a short stack of multigrain pancakes prepared
with fresh blueberries mixed in and a handful garnishing the
top. The plump berries dribbled their purple juices and added
extra oomph to the already flavorful cakes. She appreciated that
the butter was served on the side, so she didn't have to scrape
it off.
Tasha hadn't been sure she was going to join us for breakfast
that morning (which we had planned on the night before, as the
four of us ate a fabulous meal at Pepper Sisters), but said she
waking up to the tempting thought of Little Cheerful's Denver
browns made it easy to greet the day.
Her plate arrived heaped with the magnificent meal, a mix of
sauteed onions, red and green peppers, Black Forest ham and
melted cheddar and Swiss cheese, crowned with rough-cut tomatoes
and a sizeable dollop of sour cream.
Tasha and I recently had a discussion about hash browns and
how we simply can't re-create the Little Cheerful specialty
spuds in our own homes.
My husband suggested Tasha invest in a cooktop grill to cover
all four of her stove's burners, but she's decided it's far
simpler to go to the Little Cheerful and have its cooks do it
for her. That way she doesn't have to worry about storage space
— and she can spend a lazy Saturday
morning letting someone else do the work to get her fortified
for the farmer's market.
A toddler sitting next to us intermittently roared at his
older sister as she jumped up and did laps around the dining
room. But at Little Cheerful it's difficult to let a commotion
get you down, so we laughed off the ruckus and continued to
savor our meal.
A few days later, I went to Little Cheerful for lunch with
three of my officemates. Aaron, Neal and Kit couldn't keep from
ordering breakfast, but I wanted to try my first Little Cheerful
midday meal. I wasn't sure if it would hold up to those
legendary breakfasts, but I wasn't disappointed.
The Cheerful Clubhouse sandwich was enormous, piled high with
turkey, Black Forest ham, bacon, lettuce, tomato and Swiss and
cheddar cheese. The flavor that pushed the already sumptuous
sandwich over the edge was a generous slathering of chipotle
mayonnaise.
The accompanying fries were a bit floppy for my taste, but if
that's the most critical thing I can say about the Little
Cheerful, it's still a divine place to dine.
