Restaurant Review: the Rising Loafer cafe & bakery (Danville)

I've become addicted to the restaurant reviews in Diablo magazine, since it has a lot of coverage of the part of the world I live in now. So I've been scoping out places to try on my "bike to the calorie-fest" program. The Rising Loafer cafe in Danville is perfectly situated for this program, given that it lies a mere two blocks off the Iron Horse trail. And it has a bakery! What more could one want?

I was a bit concerned that the Diablo review said the prime outdoor tables fill up quickly on weekday mornings, but it may be that 9am is still early for a weekend. (I left the house at a dawdling 7am out of concern for likely temperatures.). By the time I pedaled up to the lovely streetside courtyard, there were still plenty of al fresco tables available.

My usual test of a new breakfast place is the eggs Benedict and there was the added attraction that the advertised house-made English muffins. But I also wanted to try a specialty pastry, so I asked to substitute the giant cinnamon roll for the bread side. Well, no, they can't do substitutions -- so I happily ordered the roll separately and told them to hold the bread.

My plate arrived with a side of bread. But it was a slice of banana bread so I wasn't about to send it back to get trashed. On the other hand, I didn't have anywhere good to stash it in my bike tool bag. Ah well. It's a long ride.

The eggs Benedict passed the test with flying colors, mostly. The muffins were excellent and the eggs nice and runny. The Hollandaise seemed a little on the insipid side, but I tend to like it sharp. The dish came with home fries which were crisp and hot, studded with bits of rosemary. I spared them from catsup and used them to mop up the leftover yolk and sauce.

There was supposed to be a "fruit garnish" which was missing, but nobody else around me seemed to have fitted one either, so this may have been a menu change. The cinnamon roll was hot and fresh ... and somewhat unfortunately smothered in white icing. But with most of the icing scraped off it was definitely worth having ordered. Fluffy and -- other than the icing -- not too sweet.

At the end, having contemplated the logistics of taking the banana bread with me, I decided to nibble on it while loitering over email and writing reviews. Like the underlying cinnamon roll, it was not too sweet but a bit less moist than I prefer. (Although it may have been warm when cut and therefore evaporated a bit while I ate.). The walnut content was about right but maybe a higher banana content? At any rate, I finished it with my second cup of coffee.

All in all, a place worth returning to. And when I work up to my goal of taking the Iron Horse all the way to Dublin and back, it would make a good breakfast break ( with a somewhat lighter menu than today!).