Today's review is on Lucky's Cafe in Tremont (Cleveland,Oh). I saw this place on the Fox8 Hot list and I have read lots of positive things about it, so I thought I would check it out.
Lucky's Cafe is right in the heart of Tremont. Tremont is an old world style district, where there are little boutiques and amazing historic buildings lining the streets. It has award winning restaurants and cafes, and a new England type vibe to it. It's city living without the bustle and congestion. If the weather was better we probably would have walked around a bit but since mother nature brought a thunderstorm with her today, we kept it inside.
The little background about this place that I do know is Lucky's Cafe is owned by Heather Haviland, who is also the chef there. She owns Sweet Mosiac Inc which does wedding cakes and special occasion desserts. The "sister" company of Lucky's is Vine and Bean Cafe which is located in Shaker Square.
If you didn't know you were looking for a cafe, there is a good chance you might pass this place up. It blends in with the houses around it and only stands out a bit because of the outdoor seating area with multi colored picnic benches and elevated gardens. Parking is strictly on the street, I saw a few people park across the street on the grass but I don't think that's super legal so I wouldn't recommend it.
They have a full espresso bar, a stocked pastry case (banana chocolate chip coffee cake?? Don't mind if I do!) and a brunch and lunch menu. There was no shortage of workers, we counted about 10 people working there, a few girls behind the bar, a handful of servers roaming the seating area, some people doing outside cleaning, and even more working back in the kitchen. I ordered a Lucky Latte which has honey, espresso and half and half (I subbed soy for half and half), a banana chocolate chip coffee cake , and Chad ordered an Americano and a Raspberry Butter Cream Torte.
We took our seats since they offered to bring it out for us. Immediately a waiter came over, told us the specials and asked to take our order. Looking at the menu..."overpriced" is a word I would probably use to describe it. Now I am SURE that their food is worth every penny but paying $13 for mac and cheese wasn't in our budget so we opted out of it and stuck with our pastries and coffee.
The decor seemed nice, artwork on the walls and fresh flowers on every table. The waitstaff was more than helpful as well. The coffee that they were making was freshly ground as we saw one of the baristas walk up, get some of the whole bean coffee from the wall and grind it to brew. There was no music, but for the most part the sounds of conversation filled the silence pretty well. We paid about $16 for everything. The torte itself was $5 and I think my coffee cake was $3.
I get the feeling this place's focus isn't the coffee though. There was no latte art unless you count the tree looking thing on my latte...I wasn't sure if I was reaching by trying to find a shape on my latte. Their espresso machine didn't look well taken care of (I didn't see the barista rinse out the portafilter before pulling her shots) and the espresso menu was a snooze fest. When Chad asked if there were any signature espresso drinks since I was on the fence with what I wanted to order, I was told their signature espresso drink was a mocha. Wa waaaa. Lame. Come on, dazzle me with a suggestion of a Peach Cobbler Mocha, hell make something up on the spot like a "Rainy Day Latte". The food looks amazing in the pastry case and if anything I will come back for that. It was filled with so many options of sweets that it was almost hard to choose. Chad's Torte was a little frozen so it was kind of difficult to get a good feel of how it was supposed to taste. The barista told us to wait a few minutes for the frosting to soften, we waited but in the end it was still pretty stiff. Maybe put it in the micro on defrost for a few seconds? That would have made it 10 times better.
Lucky's Cafe was voted the "Best Brunch in Cleveland" by Fox8 so maybe that is where the focus is in that place. It looks like a nice place to take my parents when they come in, it's the kind of place you take a family member to as a treat for lunch or breakfast. I'd come back for coffee sometime, it looks like a nice area and the service was very good. The price was kind of high...so definitely not a regular stop for me though. I don't want to go broke from my coffee habit, you know? :)
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