After many thwarted attempts, I finally got a chance to brunch at Cafe La Maude in Northern Liberties. It’s down a few steps from the ever popular Honey’s, but it’s a completely different experience. It’s cute on the outside, and it’s probably even cuter when it’s warm and the front windows are open and there are tables outside.  But omg, the inside is just so sickeningly cute and awesome. I mean, seriously. It’s so amazing and well-done and beautifully designed it makes me want to cry. If I could dream of a kitchen and dining room, it would look like Cafe La Maude. I would also be filthy rich in order to be able to afford it.
It’s totally european chic and cool on the inside. Grey subway tiles! I love it! It’s a cafe so the menu is fairly small, consisting of some breakfast items, sandwiches, and salads. There’s also pastries and coffees. The fare is french-lebanese, so you’ll see a nice mix of middle-eastern and french favorites. Really though, can I just say again how attractive this place is?
Here is the Saumon Fume. It is an open-faced sandwich with smoked salmon, cream cheese, tomatoes, red onions, green olives, and an overflow of arugula. This sandwich was enjoyed quite a bit, until J bit into an olive pit and almost broke a tooth. That kind of put a downer on it. Also, he asked for an egg to be added on but there was no such egg! Oops. But otherwise, a good sandwich.
I got the Halloumi Press. It was a grilled halloumi cheese sandwich on baguette with roasted tomatoes, green olives, mesclun greens and an arugula basil aioli. I fell in love with halloumi cheese ever since having it at Kanella so I really enjoyed this sandwich. This halloumi was actually quite salty though, so don’t expect anything bland. We also tried an oj/lemonade mix drink that had a slightly odd taste to it. Not odd bad, just odd. I felt like it was flowery, like a honeysuckle taste? In any case, we liked it! The service was ok. We had to wait quite awhile for the food, and people that were seated after us got their food before us, which wasn’t that cool. But the atmosphere is too great to let that bother you. It’s definitely a place to just hang out and linger with friends. I’ll wait for my sandwich if I can just soak in how lovely this place is. If only I could go home and my home was this lovely!

For my one brunch in Portland, I met up with B and his wife in the Pearl at Byways Cafe. This is a very popular brunch spot, and they told me there’s usually long waits here. I hate long waits. Since I got there a bit early, I put our name in and wandered around the shops a bit. I was assured by the hostess that our name would not be taken off the list if we weren’t there at the time she called it. So once we were all there, we didn’t have a wait at all. It was glorious! On the weekends, they’re only open for brunch and you can only order from the breakfast menu. This wasn’t going to be a problem. It’s a pretty small place and it’s like a kitschy diner, but without the neon lights or waitresses in funny little uniforms. We got to sit in one of the booths and we promptly got to ordering.
B got a scramble special of the day with prosciutto, veggies, local cheese, potatoes, and all kinds of good stuff. Yes, it’s as much food as it looks!They’re a bit famous for their blue corn pancakes here, so I definitely had to get that. But they also had a ricotta pancake on special which also sounded damn good, so I had to get one too. I wanted to try several of the pancakes so I asked if I could pick three separate ones, and they said sure. So that’s how I ended up with a ricotta, blue corn, and blueberry pancake. They were served with an almond butter and genuine maple syrup. The almond butter is awesome! I also got some strips of super thick bacon and an egg of my choice because our server recommended the sunrise special. What a great deal! Three ginormous pancakes, bacon, and egg, with even a couple wedges of orange. Speaking of orange, I also had a little glass of some delicious fresh squeezed oj. The service was fine. The other plate of pancakes took a bit long coming out, well after B’s scramble and my plate of pancakes. But other than that, we had no complaints. I have to figure out how to make my own blue corn pancakes now!

Do you know how to get delicious pumpkin waffles? Use this sweet potato waffle recipe, and swap the sweet potato for a can of pumpkin puree.
Then get a sucker with a waffle iron and infinite patience to make them for you. All you have to do is eat em!