Hidden gem

Don White is the owner and operator of Skylark's Hidden Café in Fairhaven. PHILIP A. DWYER HERALD PHOTO

Skylark's reflects Fairhaven style

Stacee Sledge

Aug 29, 2002 — Skylark's Hidden Café is one of the many reasons I love living in downtown Fairhaven. Everything is in easy strolling distance with colorful discoveries around every corner. You have to really be searching to find this tucked-away charmer.

I probably wouldn't have stumbled upon it without help from my friend Linda, who took me there for a lunch date several years ago. I enjoyed it so much that the day after my husband and I moved into the neighborhood this past summer, we celebrated with a relaxing, memorable meal on their sun-drenched stone-lined patio.

So I have a soft spot for the place. But that doesn't mean I can't examine the eatery with a critical eye and still recommend it highly. The only possible complaint I can come up with is that sometimes the service is languid (which is a polite way of saying slow). But this was not the case at all during a recent dinner with my husband. In fact, we had the restaurant to ourselves for the first part of our meal and were lavished with attention from our friendly server.

The décor of the charming restaurant is comfortable and cozy. Huge windows line the space, looking out on the aforementioned patio, a green lawn and a large shade tree. Several booths and tables fill the space, punctuated with dark greens, a bit of exposed brick, stained-glass window accents and a wood-burning stove.

The night of our visit offered two soups of the day: traditional minestrone and a butternut squash with red bell pepper. There's always a soup selection to pique your interest, but on this night I was in the mood for a salad starter.

Skylark's Hidden Café

Location:  1308-B 11th Street, Fairhaven  Phone: 715-3642 Hours: 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday Serving: A variety of deli-style, specialty and hot sandwiches, as well as salads, soups and pasta dishes. Menu items sampled: Garden green salad $4.25 French dip sandwich $6.50 Beef stroganoff $8.25 Chocolate decadence $4.75

Built from high-quality green leaf lettuce from Rosella's Fruit and Produce Co., in Seattle, my salad was generously topped with tomato slices, sprouts, carrots, cabbage and cucumbers. It could have easily been a satisfying meal in itself.

Skylark's makes everything from scratch, including its salad dressings — an important touch that doesn't go unappreciated. I chose their tomato basil vinaigrette, a tangy twist on the popular Italian. It was superb and made me look forward to returning for another salad soon, so I can sample their other offering, raspberry poppy seed vinaigrette.

My husband ordered beef stroganoff, a plentiful plateful of al dente linguini topped with chunks of choice sirloin, slices of mushrooms and onions, and mingled with a flavorful sauce of sour cream, red wine and mild Hungarian paprika. A soft, chewy homemade whole wheat roll finished off the dish, fitting for sponging leftover sauce.

I went with the classic French dip sandwich. The menu stated the sandwich's roll was toasted, but it wasn't. I actually preferred it in its soft state, all the better for soaking up the salty au jus. The thinly sliced roast beef was served in perfect proportion to the sizeable roll.

For dessert we settled on the chocolate decadence with raspberry puree, but the decision was a difficult one, as we read descriptions of the other meal toppers: apple sauce spice cake, buttered bourbon bread pudding, Grand Marnier chocolate mousse, peach cobbler. Each choice was tempting.

The generous wedge of chocolate decadence was dense and rich, set atop a balance of sweet and tart raspberry coulis and outlined with two generous pipings of fresh whipped cream. It wasn't hard to polish off the plate, even after a satisfying dinner.

One meal I've not experienced at Skylark's Hidden Café is breakfast, but after perusing the menu, I'm anxious to stop in soon. As with its lunch and dinner items, everything is made from scratch, and it offers all the morning meal favorites: pancakes, French toast, hash browns, omelettes, biscuits and gravy, and so on. They even offer out-of-the-ordinary delights like a Mediterranean frittata with feta cheese.

Skylark's Hidden Café may be just off the beaten path, but it's well worth seeking out.

The Fine Print: I dine on my own dime. The opinions herein are mine alone, not The Bellingham Herald's. Agree? Disagree? Please drop me a line at StaceeSledge@hotmail.com.