Mirth Cafe
947 New Hampshire Street
Living
just 3 blocks from the Mirth Cafe, yet never realized it was there! The windows
are dark in this ground floor space of what looks like an office building and
their sign is barely visible through the tinted windows. Once inside, a modern
decor of wood, tile, and dark steel has none of the hominess I enjoy in a good
breakfast spot (e.g. The Roost).
 |
| Mirth's "Big" Breakfast |
We were
quickly met at the door and seated, but it took 10 minutes for our server, Brittney,
to arrive. A young man dropped off some water, but was off before I had a
chance to ask for some much needed coffee. Once Brittney arrived, we found out
that it was a "self-service" coffee bar, so we wasted 10 minutes for
nothing. I scurried to the bar only to find a dirty mug on my first attempt.
There was neither half-and-half in the creamer nor coffee descriptions (dark
roast, etc.) on the 5-6 available carafe options, only "Columbian" or
"Ramona's", whatever that is, “DeCaf” … blah, blah, blah. Splenda was
available only in shaker form and I had difficulty locating it because packets
were provided for all other sweeteners (sugar, SugarInTheRaw, Sweet&Low). Brittney
appeared a bit dismayed by my request to show me where the Splenda was and even
more miffed when I asked her to please fill the half-and-half carafe so I could
enjoy my mystery coffee. There was no Stevia, a disappointment as I avoid sugar
and recently stopped using artificial sweeteners.
The
coffee was good and warm, but the coffee bar was splotched with spilled coffee,
sugar wrapper ends, and sweetener granules. To my dismay, the first upside-down
mug I chose from the batch sitting on counter was filthy, containing adhering
coffee granules from the previous customer. I was fortunate that I noticed them
just as I started to pour my coffee as I normally assume that the dinnerware in
restaurants are clean, a bold assumption I know.
I had Mirth’s
Big Breakfast ($8.25) with a side of country gravy ($1.75) for a total of $10,
a bit pricey for not-so-big breakfast in my opinion. The “BIG” breakfast was
not as big as advertised. The two “over-medium” eggs I ordered looked “large”
at best, not “extra large”, and were closer to over-easy than what I ordered.
The bacon was crisp, yet chewy just like I like it, but it was lukewarm and came
in a clump of two or three pieces as it was difficult to tell how many ends I
saw on the intertwined pieces which had obviously been sitting in a pan waiting
to be dispensed to a plate. Which brings me to the potatoes. They were
“home-style”, which apparently means burnt, cold chunks with little if any
seasoning. The accompanying biscuit was very small and the gravy minimal for
the price ($1.75), coming in a “side” size cup, maybe 3 ounces at best, and
barely covering the two small biscuit halves. It was “OK, but nothing special
and not nearly as tasty or abundant as The Roost’s and there was no sign, either
visible or tastable, of either bacon or sausage.
My wife
had the Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy, which had much more flavor than the
sausage variety and chunks of something … possibly the sausage missing from my
gravy! It was much spicier than mine and I would have actually preferred it to
the non-vegetarian version, a sad statement from a longtime carnivore. $5.25
seems a little high for two small biscuits and a bit of gravy, but it beats paying
ten bucks for a mediocre egg dish.
Brittney
was very nice for the most part and very attentive after she finally arrived,
so no gripes there. We were mildly disappointed by the experience and Mirth Café
will likely not become a household staple, unfortunate in that it is the
closest café to our home. The décor and service was somewhat cold and
impersonal, leaving me unimpressed overall.
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