image (c) http://www.birchwoodcafe.com/
What: Birchwood Cafe
Where: 3311 East 25th St., Mpls, 55406
Rating: 7
Non-Quantifiable Rating: How did the guy in the corner wearing Sharpie-scribbled Chuck Taylors afford a $14 plate of eggs?
To fit in at the Birchwood Cafe, you have to be one of two types people:
Option A is the emo/hipster U of M graduate student wearing a T-shirt that says "I slaughter meat eaters."
Option B universally requires spandex, because you just came from/are just leaving on an epic bike ride and/or nordic ski, and need to fuel up.
This is a weird juxtaposition of demographic groups, and yet it fits this weird juxtaposition of a restaurant. It's stuffed into an esoteric corner of the Seward neighborhood and the exterior is so bland that you could drive by a hundred times and never notice it. However, the inside is a vibrant, welcoming, cheerful blast of colors and smells and too-cool-for-school decor.
It's also a low-key, hippie-ish, clear-your-own-table kind of place but it has surprisingly high prices for the vibe. Breakfast for two of us was $36 (although, to be fair, my dining companion ordered triple sausage and a beer. Yes, they serve beer at breakfast. Yes, I ate breakfast with a person who ordered beer for breakfast).
For the price, however, you get phenomenal food (and a lot of it). I had a build-your-own scramble with avocado and gruyere cheese that was to die for (see photo below). You even get to pick your own herb/spice topping - how novel!
Bottom line: great food, fun vibe, good people-watching, odd location, and too expensive to be a regular outing but perhaps not schmancy enough to classify as a "special occasion" place in some people's books. Alas, a study in contrasts.
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