My 'hood has needed a cafe, well, since forever. Rantoul really hasn't had any decent places to sit down with a cuppa and a sandwich or treat. Or to grab a coffee and snack and run for the train. Crave solves that problem. First off they have gutted it since it was last the Cupcake Cafe. The new look is clean, chic, and dare I say cool? The tables made by a fused glass artist (and family member of the cafe) are gorgeous and just big enough for a Macbook or tablet. However, no wifi, yet. The flooring is amazing, the counter is beautiful, and the whole place is painted cool shades of blue-green. I can't wait until they get some art on the walls.
So the vibe is clean and cool, how is the food? Oh man, so tasty. I snagged a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich while my wife snagged an almond croissant and a quiche. The croissant was fab- sweet in the right places and flaky in the others. The quiche was packed full of mushrooms and flavorful. My breakfast sandwich was also amazing. Loads of crispy bacon, a freshly cooked egg, and loads of melty cheese. I found the pita a little tough in places to bite through, but it was delicious. Overall all of our food was fantastic and cheap. Even though the wife got basically 2 breakfasts we ended up spending just a hair over $20, had we not been piggish it would have been well below $20. For $10 you can get a coffee and a sandwich to go.
The coffee was only okay. Now don't get me wrong, it was perfectly decent coffee, but food this good deserves something spectacular. I'm also a huge coffee snob.The wife got the light/medium roast of their drip and I got myself an americano. The coffee was pretty good, but really paled in comparison to the food. If I were to go so far as to make a suggestion- George Howell's (local) coffee would be awesome with the food. Tandem in Portland, ME is premium but again, goes really well with baked goods. A program like Crema's guest bean- where they have a regular house bean and then something spectacular would probably do well here. That way they can serve up something like their house bean (whatever it is now) and then have something on tap for coffee elitist douches like me who will pay a premium price for good coffee to go along with their awesome food. The North Shore needs a location that does an awesome guest bean program, the only places I've found this are in Boston/Cambridge.
Also, customer service here was top notch. The woman at the counter and men behind the scenes were super nice and informative. Once they have some wifi here, I can see myself logging some hours working here. This is a fantastic upgrade to the former Cupcake Cafe, but also to the neighborhood. read more