Review - Brunch at Cafe Selmarie

By Anthony Todd in Food on Apr 15, 2010 4:00PM

We must have walked past Café Selmarie 100 times during trips to Lincoln Square. Without fail, we always looked in, said "oh, isn't that pretty. We must go to eat there sometime," and walked on by, intent on our business. Gosh, do we feel stupid now. We've missed out on years of tasty food!

Café Selmarie offers a full menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we decided to try it out for brunch. They have a reputation for amazing pastry and we had a hankering for some. While you wait for a table (and you will, at least on Sunday), you can drool over their pastry case full of delectable goodies. The host was kind enough to let us leave and shop during the wait, which is not always allowed and made the 30 minutes fly by.

The dining room is bright, airy and cheerful. Alcoholic brunch drinks (mmm, mimosas) are well-priced and well made, at $5.50 for a nice large one with a strawberry. The Sunday brunch menu focuses on breakfast-oriented goodies, including pecan-buttermilk griddle cakes with orange-honey butter and our selection, a chorizo scramble with fresh corn tortillas and guacamole. They also served one of the prettiest eggs benedict we have ever encountered.

Next time you're in the neighborhood, don't pass on by! We'll be stopping in for dinner on our next visit.

Café Selmarie is located at 4729 N. Lincoln Avenue, close to the Western stop on the Brown Line. Parking is generally available in Lincoln Square.