In New Cafe News...

We stopped into the new Volunteer Park Cafe & Marketplace on our way to Interlaken Park this weekend, and found a gourmet but friendly cafe doing hopping business. Their website describes things nicely:

We’ll be serving breakfast and lunch starting at 7 a.m. every day except Monday. We’ll focus on simple cuisine using quality fresh local and regional ingredients. Most items will be made in-house—pastries, dressings, quiche, sauces and soups. There will be a special kids menu with kid-sized portions and after-school treats.

More to the point, the menu (pdf) alerts us to Chicken Noodle Soup with Matzo Dumplings. Holy shii--! as they say on TV. They also sell wine. We're sold. They're at 17th and Galer, just east of the north end of Volunteer Park.

Meanwhile, last week Victrola Coffee embarked on its roastery adventure finally, opening its doors at Pike and Terry. Here's a Roots and Grubs take on the surroundings, and here's the Metblog reaction. It's more of a coffee center than simply a cafe, given the roasting operations and the cupping room. Though the front cafe area is spacious and welcoming, we wonder if they won't be seeing a lot of to-go business as people hoof it downtown. Hours are 5:30am to 11pm.