Every once in a while, the Reverend and I develop an itch to stray....from our usual breakfast places. When this happens, we consult our Yelp Bookmark feature, and up popped Tuscany Cafe in H-Town.
The cafe is a corner shop in an area that has a hodgepodge of auto repair, tailors, an upholstery shop, houses and even an old A & P converted to a gym. It's the kind of development that just kinda happened without much forethought. Parking is not quite in a 'lot', more that you pull up and park nose in all around the building.
When you come inside, everything feels newer. There's a counter with a chalkboard menu, a bakery case and some chairs lined up against a 'bar' facing the windows. This part looks like a grab-n-go breakfast coffee counter. Then they bring you into the good sized, roomy, rustic chairs and tables with 'wood' floors (ceramic) and you feel like you're in an upscale-casual place, all browns and wheats with pops of color.
We were seated by a window and our drink order promptly taken. They came back with a cup of La Colombe coffee in an oversized cup that the Rev described as "strong" and "very good". Remember, folks, he's not a Chatty Cathy. They also brought out a small plate with tiny slivers of cinnamon cake that was delish.
Menu is not deep, they had about 10 or so breakfast items, with the rest of the one page menu being lunch and bakery items. They do the slightly silly "Tuscany Toast" (french toast) type labeling. The Rev got this, which is actually french toast made with Italian bread, and I got the crepes with strawberries. As for breakfast meats OMG they have prosciutto, which is immediately what I ordered.
The french toast was "fine', which means it was good in Rev-ese. The problem with the bread choice here is that it tends to be dense and a bit dry, and that's hard to overcome with the egg dip. The crepes were lovely, all the fruit was fresh. Bacon served was delightfully crispy without being burnt, and the prosciutto was served in little rounds and was divine, so good I took the rest home to snack on.
Service was friendly, a little uneven but overall fine. I had a hard time with this one because I want to give 4 1/2 stars. Overall very good food, decent service, nice atmosphere. One star off for just OK french toast with the cutesy name.
We'll definitely be back, perhaps for lunch to see what that is. Not sure if it's on the regular rotation as there's no SOS and that's usually a requirement (exception made for Mary's which has amazeballs french toast so the Rev doesn't care about no SOS). read more