CAFE OLIVER - Minneapolis

Cafe Oliver recently took over Acadia Cafe's former space near downtown. Cafe Oliver has a lot of charm for a small neighborhood cafe - exposed brick, high ceilings, lots of seating, a small stage, and works of local artists on the walls. The menu is fairly short featuring salads, sandwiches, sweets and fair trade coffee. You will also find a nice list of fair trade wines by the glass and bottle. On Sundays & Mondays, bottles of wine are half priced!

Neil and I needed a late dinner so we chose the "new kid on the block." We started off with chips 'n salsa, described as "homemade salsa with the crispiest chips". The homemade salsa tasted very similar to bottled Pace & tortilla chips that were a day beyond crispy.

I had the turkey club sandwich on grilled Tuscan bread. The 2 slices of turkey had the texture of pressed turkey breast, the 2 translucent slices of bacon missed their mark, the slice of Swiss cheese was too small for the bread, and finally it needed more of the herbed mayo. Very disappointing. A handful of crumbled BBQ kettle potato chips came with the sandwich. BBQ chips... why? This was an odd match.

When the music is playing, it provides a nice background to conversation. While we were eating, there were 2 periods of 5-7 minutes of no music. I found this to be odd during our 1 hour visit.

Cafe Oliver has potential. Until the sandwiches become something to brag about, I recommend stopping at Jimmy John's (across the street) for your sandwich where you get 3 times the meat and fixings for about $6. Take your sandwich over to Cafe Oliver's and uncork a good wine at a great price!

$
++++
✦✦

$ 10
$$ 20
$$$ 30
$$$$ 40+

Staff
+ Stop bothering me!
++ Anyone here?
+++ Stopped when in the area.
++++ As needed and friendly.
+++++ Invisibly perfect!

Overall
✦ “One visit too many!”
✦✦ “Convince me!”
✦✦✦ “I’ll be back!”
✦✦✦✦ “Same table next week!”