When the weather permits, I like to ride my bicycle to a spot for some coffee and a treat. I can hit two places when I ride around Lake Minnetonka. If I feel ambitious I can do the 50 mile, 3 coffee shop ride. It entails riding to the J&S Bean factory in Saint Paul for a Cafe Cubano and then around the lake with 2 more stops before home. If I only want a Cubano it’s 41 miles to and from J&S. Well, I can stop on the way out or back at Rustica if I need more.
Once upon a time there was Patisserie Margo in Excelsior. They had great coffee along with wonderful fresh baked breads, croissants, muffins, scones and more. Sadly, Margo closed the Excelsior branch but I can still go to her Edina spot. Occupying the old Pat Margo Excelsior location is a bakery called Red Bench. They too have excellent bread and pastries. I’m especially fond of their ham and cheese croissant. The other favorite on my two coffee stop ride around Lake Minnetonka is Bellecour in Wayzata. At Bellecour you think you rode your bicycle to France. The wonderful bread, the croissants, the coffee, the French music. You still have to pay with Dollars or a credit card and they do speak American, thank goodness.
When She and I go out to breakfast together in an automobile we like to hit the above places as well as small, privately owned restaurants like in Downtown Hopkins, “Hoagies”. This family restaurant has been there forever. It has booths, tables, and a fence (lunch counter) for folks with strong backs. Weekdays at breakfast time you have to be at least 50 plus years of age to enter. Young people, and families look out of place except on the weekend. The wait staff know most of the regular customers by name. The food is good and the coffee is hot. They even leave an insulated carafe full of this hot brown liquid on the table so that you are never without. I could go on about the 318 Cafe, Moose and Sadie’s, Beanhaven Cafe, YoYo Donuts, Patisserie 46, White Castle, Smith and scores of others places we have enjoyed but not as much as the next one.
Our neighbor, Randy “the Dude” and his lovely wife B. introduced She Who Must Be Obeyed and I to Maggie’s Family Restaurant, in Wayzata. It has become our breakfast destination of desire.
Maggie’s menu is so loaded with breakfast choices that you had better bring your readers. On week days there are breakfast specials too. I like to order the #2. (Stop thinking about the other #2, Mr. potty mouth.) Oddly a #2 at Maggie’s is three slices of French Toast and two sausage links or patties. If you prefer, you can have bacon instead.
On the weekend the price is a bit higher but you get 4 sausages or bacon. She Who loves their pancakes. They are excellent but I am addicted to the French Toast. They use their own house-made bread and cook them on an uber hot griddle. The edges are crispy, the inside is heaven. You can’t duplicate this at home unless you have a restaurant stove. These pancakes and French Toast are so good that they deserve real maple syrup! We bring our own tiny bottle when ever we go to Maggie’s.
Right now with this Damndemic upon us, none of this can happen. The good news is: I can still ride my bicycle around Lake Minnetonka and wave as I ride by my favorite spots and remember the good old days.
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