As usual yesterday, we got up early to go to church. Now for those of you who either follow this ramble religously or just plain know us in the flesh, church is a spiritual place for us on Sunday mornings because we see all our old friends and chat people up. They have great coffee, which one needs in order to bargain at the tables strewn with life's little cast offs. Thats right, church is a fleamarket where we go almost every Sunday morning. We like to expose some of our friends to church as well, and it has now become a ritual with people. Some call the night before to make sure the eccumenical express (my truck) comes and stops at their door the next morning...some, like Vicky, call at 7:15 to tell us they are dressed and ready to go. More often than not, Vicky calls to wake us up!
What does this have to do with restaurant reviews you say? We usually go to breakfast afterwards. I don't write about this every week, because we love going to Dudley's in Belfast...best breakfast we've found so far and for the best price too. Alas, Dudley's was closed for a weeks worth of R&R so we decided to try the CO-OP brunch.
Now the CO-OP is a strange place for me. I find it pretentious, expensive, and downright unfriendly most times. They do have good bulk food and some of those speciality items one cannot find elsewhere. Its apparently the largest and most successful food cooperative in the state, but try and get a question answered...forget about it if they don't know you! We get there and I commented on the fact that they were already selling Christmas wreaths in the parking lot. I thought they should be selling Christmas Wreath making kits on recycled paper instead. Greg commented that the wreaths were made from boughs that had been gently blown off trees and were found already lying on the ground. He He He.

The Co-op Brunch, Belfast Maine

The food sounded good. Greg ordered an omlette with scallions, mushrooms, and swiss cheese with homefries and multigrained toast. I had two eggs with bacon homefries, toast and black spiced chai. A side of what looked like a good piece of coffee cake completed the meal. Everyone else had eggs with the homefries and toast as well. We ordered, found a table, chatted and went to get our orders as they called our names. The presentation was very nice, but the eggs were a bit liquidy, the homefries hard and undercooked and the toast was very, very, lightly toasted and cold. Greg's was the same. His mushrooms were undercooked as well. The coffee cake was moist, but didn't have the gooey sugary-cinnamon taste that one craves in coffee cake....I mean, why have coffee cake if it won't get you going on a sugar high??? Oh, Heather found the guy behind the counter taking orders kind of rude, as did we, but she got into a flap with him over taking a menu off a table.

The chai was a nice complement and the place was pretty cozy. The photographs on the wall for sale were just excellent and I would recommend that you go just for that.

Anyway I rate the place an A- for atmosphere and a C+ for food.

Enjoy!

Seth