"Melinda's salad" is served with a sliver of cucumber surrounding it like a circular wall.
(Globe Staff / Dominic Chavez)
Cheap Eats
Melinda Jones and Tom Clackett had a modest desire.
Much as they love East Boston, where they have lived for more than a decade, they pined for something many urbanites take for granted: a casual, inexpensive, walk-to neighborhood café. Eastie has no shortage of Italian restaurants and taquerias. But if you wanted a brunch spot - the type with espresso and a wireless connection - you were out of luck.
"We kept thinking, 'That's exactly the kind of place East Boston needs. Somebody should do that,' " recalls Jones. "And somehow we decided that somebody should be us."
How Jones, a nurse practitioner, and Clackett, a contractor, wound up opening the 303 Cafe is a lovely story of entrepreneurial spirit, perseverance, and community support. They bought a broken-down building in Jeffries Point, just outside Maverick Square, and turned it into a beauty. The city cooperated. The neighborhood rallied around them. And customers are coming in droves.
With its tin ceiling, exposed brick walls, hardwood floors, skylights, gauzy curtains, and chalkboard menu, the cafe is hip, but not insufferably so. The hordes of 30-somethings who flock here daily are obviously euphoric the place exists. The food can be wonderful. But there's a catch. As a neighborhood gathering spot, the 303 Cafe is a fabulous success. As a restaurant, its ambitions sometimes outpace its abilities.
What was intended to be a simple breakfast-and-lunch spot when it opened in September has rapidly morphed into a full-service operation. It now offers beer and wine, free delivery, a half-dozen homemade desserts, and entrees like pan-seared tilapia with mango salsa and apricot couscous. So much for coffee and eggs!
Some of it is quite good. But empanadas ($9) are doughy and overbattered. Spring rolls ($7) are a wet mass of cold noodles clumped in rice paper. Grilled lamb chops ($10) are beautifully pink, but marred by inedibly salty lo mein noodles. While a cider-brined grilled pork chop ($16) has nice flavor, it's so dry we nearly asked for a saw. And what should be a hot, gooey center in the "death by chocolate" molten cake ($6.25) is baked solid.
The simple foods - the ones that hew most closely to Jones and Clackett's original vision - are where the 303 Cafe excels. Chunky red lentil soup ($4-$6), lightly seasoned with curry, is outstanding. "Melinda's salad" ($6.50-$7) is a creative blend of romaine, chick peas, sunflower seeds, red onion, carrots, and feta presented with artistic flair: a sliver of cucumber encircles the mixture like an edible wall.
I'd go back any time for the grilled veggie sandwich ($7.50) of zucchini, summer squash, button mushrooms, plum tomatoes, and pesto on crusty sourdough. And seafood is consistently top-notch, from flaky North Atlantic haddock ($15) with charmoula, a North African marinade of tomatoes and kalamata olives, to chunky crab cakes ($9.50) with crunchy jicama slaw and chipotle aioli.
For breakfast, curried tofu scramble ($6) tossed with onions, mushrooms, and chick peas is delicious, and Portuguese sweet bread French toast ($7) layered with Nutella and raspberry sauce is ethereal. For dessert, a fat cookie (chocolate chunk, peanut butter, or oatmeal-raisin) with vanilla ice cream ($2.50) is perfection.
Jones, who doubles as waitress and cashier while Clackett does dishes and deliveries, realizes the cafe is a work in progress. "We're at that painful growing stage," she says. Yet she's pursuing the idea of an on-site bakery that will make pizza dough and artisanal breads, a project that seems wildly ambitious.
Good news: This spot is such a welcome and obviously beloved addition to the neighborhood that we're willing to forgive its faults. Besides, we can't help but admire a place whose reach sometimes exceeds its grasp.
© Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.
