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Restaurant review

Sublimely simple, day or night

Fresh ingredients and a hot grill are the right mix for City's Cafe in St. Petersburg.

By JANET K. KEELER
Published January 25, 2007

The menu is displayed over the open kitchen as server Veronica Boutkam, 19, picks up an order at City’s Cafe & Market Place.
	[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Dirk Shadd] Get your fill with sandwiches like this turkey and cranberry with dill Havarti on sourdough bread.

ST. PETERSBURG

There can never be too many places to grab breakfast, lunch and a quick dinner. And when those places show flair and imagination and are independent, too, diners are amply rewarded.

City's Cafe & Market Place on Fourth Street N is that kind of place, especially when the cooks are working the griddle. Get just about anything grilled and you won't be disappointed.

It's not easy going up against the big chains with the big lines but City's Cafe ought to do just fine, thanks to its varied menu and attention to ingredients.

The bacon for breakfast is applewood-smoked Nueske from Wisconsin. Partially baked sourdough bread is flown in from San Francisco's legendary Boudin Bakery, then finished off in the cafe's ovens. Same goes for wheat and rye from the Manhattan Bread Co. in New York. No wimpy slices here, just thick rounds that can stand up to a pile of embellishments.

Perhaps there's some good karma left on the corner that used to be Hungry Bear, a popular spot for early and late breakfasts. The restaurant was torn down last year, save for two exterior walls. In its place came up a boxy, industrial space with sleek touches, including cool cobalt glass spots over each table.

A dozen booths and a few tables are ample seating for those dining in. It would be lovely, though, to be able to eat outside.

Owner Steve Johnston is not new to the city's dining scene. His City Gourmet about 80 blocks north has been serving sandwiches and other casual fare for more than 15 years. City's Cafe has a similar feel with its bustling open kitchen.

At breakfast, stuffed sourdough french toast oozing with sweetened cream cheese and gilded with caramelized apples was a treat that belied its heavy intentions. A French Brie omelet studded with the earthy tang of ripe tomatoes was perfectly cooked, the eggs still moist and plenty fluffy. Alongside were two patties of hash browns that were tasty, though not exactly the potato pancakes promised on the menu. They need grated onion to be authentic.

Five versions of eggs Benedict, including the traditional dish draped with Hollandaise sauce, are enough to jump-start any Sunday when breakfast is served until 3 p.m.. We were rooting for the New Orleans Saints and hoped a Crescent City version with andouille sausage and pico de gallo would bring the team luck. It didn't, but we won with the spicy treat.

For lunch, and dinner too, stick to grilled sandwiches and soups du jour and you'll be soothed with comfort food. Black bean soup was suitably thick with a backdrop of cumin and aromatic vegetables, tasted but not seen. Chicken noodle was fat with chunky noodles and shredded chicken in a subtle broth.

A hot pressed Cuban seemed authentic until we bit into tomato; order it without. The fresh mozzarella sandwich with pesto and tomato grilled on rye tasted like something you might make in your own kitchen, providing you had access to top-notch ingredients. Sandwiches come with a scoop of potato salad that remembers its roots; potatoes still had their shape and were not drowning in mayonnaise.

A few quibbles here: The fried falafel wrap with hummus, lettuce and tomatoes was more about the hummus and shredded iceberg than chickpea balls. We had trouble finding the hush puppy-sized falafels, and they were overcooked. A tangy-cool tzatziki sauce would have been better than that hummus.

The $5.50 create-your-own-salad, on which customers can choose up to five items off a list of 23, is friendly, but additional add-ons are a bit overpriced. For $1 more we want more than a few crumbles of feta.

City's Cafe offers nightly dinner specials, mostly beef on the days we visited. This may not be enough to entice eat-in customers at night, but the deli counter featuring takeout fare such as lasagna and quiche might get them to stop by on the way home from work.

And if that's the case, then they'll be back when they see the plates of food being delivered to diners. A grilled cheese sandwich never tasted or looked so good as it does at City's Cafe.

Janet K. Keeler can be reached at (727) 893-8586 or jkeeler@sptimes.com Until a replacement for Chris Sherman is named, Weekend features guest critics.

Review

City's Cafe & Market Place

3238 Fourth St. N, St. Petersburg

Phone: (727) 258-6400

Hours: 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and until 6 p.m. on Sunday; closed Monday. Breakfast served until 11 a.m., 3 p.m. on Sundays. Regular menu available until 8 p.m.; nightly dinner specials.

Details: Major credit cards accepted; takeout and dine-in available; children's menu offered; beer and wine for sale; handicapped accessible.

Prices: Breakfast entrees, $6.25 to $9; Lunch and dinner entrees, $5.50 to $13.

[Last modified January 24, 2007, 12:09:30]