Cafe Brazil

It is very early in the morning and I can't remember if it is Cafe Brasil or Cafe Brazil...whichever one it is, it's a bustling place.

The cafe started as a tiny place at the corner of Manchester and McKnight and within a year or so expanded into the next building to become a much larger place and at least when I was there, they seemed to have no trouble packing the space with happy diners.

I had visited a couple of times when it was housed in it's tiny storefront. I liked the food at the time and remember that there were a fair amount of healthy items that I enjoyed eating...like some kind of wonderful greens dish and a corn something or other.

Like many new places I visit, I go a couple of times then forget about it. That's what happened here.

Well, last Saturday night, I went into the expanded Cafe Bra(s/z)il and found a warm, busy room fairly bursting with diners and lots of efficient service and heady aromas wafting about.

I tasted several vegetarian dishes that were really delicious. The greens are still on the menu and still good but could use less salt for my taste. Beans were yummy and I had a taste of some kind of a fish soup that was wonderful.

The wine chosen was a silky black magic... just delicious. I apologize that I don't remember the name but it was a red wine of about 28 bucks a bottle and it was from Portugal. It was amazingly drinkable and went down well with all the strong, interesting flavors of the food. Later, the owner brought a few samples of some of his organic wines, which I was so glad to see him carrying, and they were good but somewhat wasted on me, being already pretty wine-soaked. Too much of a good thing, in fact. Two glasses are really too much for me. I was walking, though, so no driving issues here.

Any vegetarian or health-conscious person will be well fed at this place. It so much feels like a neighborhood place, too. It just has that warm, friendly and "real" feeling of a group of real people who are serving real food and really care about what they serve and how they serve it.

I enjoyed myself immensely.