Review #17
Encinitas coffee shops are a dime a dozen so I was not super excited to try Lofty Coffee Co.. Plus, although I love coffee, coffee don’t love me, so I usually stick to tea. And I have LOTS of tea at home. About seven different varieties of organic green tea which I love. So to pay money to go to a run of the mill coffee spot wasn’t exciting. I just wanted to get this week’s blog done and move on to a “real” place. Little did I know…
Steve was out of town and rather than wait until next week when we could go together, we both decided I should march on forward with this one without him. He doesn’t drink coffee and we both thought he wouldn’t be missing much.
I met a couple of girlfriends at the beach so we could get an hour walk in before our “coffee”. I have to admit, the location is perfect for this. There was a line out the door when we arrived, Sunday at 10:00 am, and no available tables outside. But turn over was quick and we scored a table inside, which was not ideal but we were lucky to even get that.
I looked at the menu on the door and was pleasantly surprised to see some real breakfast items offered, not just the pastries shown in the display.
The menu was limited in variety but everything offered sounded great.
I saw an order of the Organic French Toast go by and thought of a very special french toast connoisseur in my life that would just LOVE that. It looked downright heavenly. I owe it to him to come back for that one! Instead we ordered a couple of S.L.O.E egg dishes and some pastries (so I could feel like I really gave this place a fair try. Not because I wanted to eat pastries. And remember from my Pannikin review, pastries that you order for The Table don’t have calories.) We tried the Lemon Poppy seed cookie and a Cinnamon Bun.
Lemon poppy seed cookie
cinnamon bun
I was very excited to see an organic oolong tea on the menu, which I happily ordered. Those not familiar with oolong tea should note that oolong tea comes from the same plant as green and black tea. Green tea leaves are unfermented, black tea leaves are fully fermented and oolong tea leaves are partially fermented. Oolong tea has many health benefits and is quite delicious. There is a great book of fiction by Lisa See called The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane that will really get you in the mood for some ooling. And that is your oolong tea lesson for the day.
Lofty Coffee serves their tea on a beautiful wooden platter with an adorable service for one with a glass cup and saucer which somehow makes the tea taste even better.
But let’s not gloss over those pastries I mentioned. Lofty Coffee has another location across the street where they roast all of their coffee and bake these yummy pastries fresh every day. The Lemon Poppy Seed cookie was really good. Especially served with that oolong tea in the glass mug. Mmmm Mmm! But that Cinnamon Bun! Normally, I would never order a cinnamon bun, but my friend Christine knew about this one. Ohhh, did she know. Looking at it was nothing special. It didn’t even have that much frosting. It looked downright dull. But after one bite, you know that this is the best cinnamon bun in town! Really, order one. Here it is again:
Our egg dishes came and were beautiful and filling. The home made hummus (called “spread” on the menu) is wonderful on their freshly made, rustic bread. The heirloom tomatoes were juicy and the spinach leaves were crisp and fresh. Perfection!
Bottom Line: Lofty Coffee is a hidden gem. It’s definitely not just your average coffee shop. I heard from a friend that for a foo-foo drink, order the Salted Caramel Latte. And my friend Rebecca said that out of all of their regular coffees, the “house” was the tastiest. Don’t just come for drinks, because the food here is really good. Next time I will come with my son for that french toast and a panini that I saw people enjoying. This is the perfect local morning hang-out. Sorry Steve, you missed a good one!
Join us next Sunday, August 27th, at 6:00 for Duffs at the Beach 90 N. Coast Hwy 101. Followed by a trip to Handel’s Homemade Ice Cream.
Dining on the 101 