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The Grove Cafe & Market

505-248-9800

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The Grove’s incredibly airy, open space, with windows in various geometric shapes and sizes, will wake you up and calm you down all at once. Serene blue walls, white cabinetry and a high-beamed ceiling surround a spacious arena for cooking, ordering, dining and shopping. There’s certainly not the hectic hubbub that marks similar rather high-priced stand-in-line-and-order eateries.
 
The Breakfast Sandwich, with added avocado and applewood smoked bacon ($8.25) compliments a strong and flavorful cup of coffee (a Costa Rican brew from Chicago’s Intelligentsia Coffee). With its perfectly cooked and seasoned scrambled eggs, perfectly ripe avocado and perfectly crisp bacon, the sandwich is, well, perfect.

The Grove clearly prides itself on its French country/Napa Valley-inspired cooking and products that tempt hungry diners as they stand in line reading the giant chalkboard menu that hangs over the friendly front and back of house staff.

At The Grove, lunch could also be breakfast since it’s served all day. Choose from items like Poached Eggs with roasted turkey or black forest ham ($7.50) or with San Daniele prosciutto, roasted asparagus and parmesan ($8.25), Grove Pancakes, French style with crème fraiche, fresh fruit and real maple syrup ($7.25) or, nodding to local tastes, The Burrito, with scrambled eggs, Tully’s sausage, goat cheese and house-made green chile ($6.25).

However, if you’re a strict lunch constructionist, beginning at 11a, you can select from among several warm pressed or “cool” sandwiches, plus a number of salads, including an “ever-changing” one that highlights seasonal ingredients ($8.95), including a brilliant Fall Harvest Salad with dried cranberries, sliced apples, walnuts and local feta, scattered over arugula leaves and drizzled with a sturdy red wine vinaigrette. In all, a hearty, meat-less masterpiece. But, like the kindred spirit she’s proven to be, my friend longed for a carb companion to her meal – a scrap of homemade bread, please? Another must have is the very traditional Croque Monsieur ($7.95), served open faced on rustic farm loaf with ham, tomato and gruyere cheese, complemented with whole grain mustard and a small dish of macerated fruit.

The Grove Cafe & Market isn’t a bad escape from crowded streets and stressful offices. And with a glass of French, Australian or Italian wine (starting at $6.50), life at The Grove, whether breakfast or lunch, can be very good, if not utterly amazing.

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