Sturdy fare with a French twist
The Select Cafe
289 Belmont St., Belmont617-484-2424
Hours: Sunday 8 a.m.- 2:30 p.m.; Tuesday and Thursday, 10 a.m. -3 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m.; Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m.
Takeout available; No reservations; No credit cards
Accessible to the handicapped
"The soul selects her own society. . ." - Emily Dickinson
Don't come to the Select Cafe if you want to pay with a credit card; it's cash only.
Don't come if you like to order a glass of wine to accompany your dinner; the cafe is too small to hold a liquor license. (Regular customers have learned to be self-reliant on that front.)
Don't bring the kids for lunch if they're dependent on PB&Js or burgers and fries; you won't find those on the menu.
And don't come for dinner if you require a large selection; you'll find only two or three entrees scrawled on a whiteboard propped in the window.
So who are the self-selected customers at the Select Cafe and why do they come? They may enjoy what French-born owner Elie Matta, who has owned the restaurant for 11 years, calls a bistro atmosphere.
A photo on the wall shows the famous Le Select cafe in Paris. Lacking striped awnings and outdoor seating, its American namesake still supplies high-test espresso ($2.50), cappuccino ($2.90), cafe latte ($2.90), cafe au lait ($2.50), substantial pots of tea ($1.50-$3), and fresh-squeezed orange juice ($2.75) as well as "American coffee ($1.55)." These are the real cafe deal, at prices that make
The food arrives in generous portions, with Gallic niceties like baguettes baked fresh on the premises every day and homemade vinaigrette, subtly tangy from mustard and tarragon.
Tiny as it is, the Select Cafe is really two restaurants in one. By day, it offers a fairly extensive breakfast and lunch menu, including two dozen combinations of commendably fluffy omelettes featuring everything from avocado to salami ($5.75-$6.95). Enormous salads are dressed with a homemade hummus. Pate, grilled chicken, and vegetables are available on wraps or baguettes ($5.75-$6.95). And three kinds of quiche (lorraine, spinach, and mixed vegetable: $6.75) are dense and cheesy, with a crust both moist and crisp.
In the evening, patrons have a choice of no more than three dinner entrees - whatever Matta is in the mood for. On Fridays and Saturdays, one of the entrees is nearly always seafood: a shrimp curry, marinated grilled salmon, perhaps a bouillabaisse. Steak is omnipresent, as are such popular chicken dishes as chicken piccata and chicken Champagne, nearly a quarter of a chicken with mushrooms in a Champagne cream sauce.
Entrees range from $15 to $20, and all come with a huge salad: mounds of fresh greens and hefty chunks of tomato, cucumber, and pepper. One minor flaw is that the too generous portion of house vinaigrette often leaves a pool behind on the plate.
Entree accompaniments are simple; no elaborate nouvelle cuisine here: steamed rice and vegetables, roast potatoes, a mushroom or two.
The first time I visited the Select Cafe, rushing in American-style, I felt like a plane landing on a short runway. This place is small, and the kitchen, nested behind cutout walls with arched windows, takes up more than half the space. There are only a couple of dozen chairs, and when he's not working on an order, you'll find Matta on one of them at the back of the restaurant, chatting with the friendly waitresses or a customer. He seems to know nearly everyone who walks through the door.
To a casual observer, it's hard to tell if these are customers or old friends who have dropped by, or perhaps that's an artificial distinction in a bistro like this.
The friend who first told me about the Select Cafe said it reminded him of the joke about the Martian restaurant: "Great food, no atmosphere." Maybe because I didn't expect much in the way of ambiance, I found the cafe cheerful, with walls painted vivid tangerine and rose, trimmed in avocado. The cafe may be a storefront on a busy street, but in the evenings, with a few fresh flowers on the tables and classical music wafting in the background, the Select Cafe seems cozy, and could even be romantic, with the right person across the tiny table.
Desserts are an afterthought. Be sure to catch your waitress before she brings the check if you have a yen for creme caramel or tiramisu ($4). The Mattas no longer bake the elegant pastries they did when they owned the stylish Patisserie Francais in Harvard Square, but you can usually get a piece of respectable pie or chocolate cake ($4).
The cafe is about a different kind of time and place: It doesn't have a website, and Matta resists getting a cellphone. The limited offerings for dinner are anachronism in a country where we can regularly choose from 18 kinds of toothpaste or corn chips. But if you're comfortable eating what someone else thinks is a good idea for dinner, or you have a craving for sturdy, flavorful fare with a Gallic twist, you might want to elect to stop by the Select.
CATHIE DESJARDINS 