after dinner sneeze

t says: I actually completely forgot that we went to Cafe Estelle! Only when we recently saw our Cafe Estelle brunch-mates did it click that we went! Because my memory has faded, I’ll give you the short version …

Setting: Honey’s Sit-n-Eat was completely packed at 10am. We were sad. As we sat in line, we were cold. We decided that being warm was more important than Honey’s. Sorry Honey’s. Our friends suggested Cafe Estelle. We walked briskly.

5/2010, Sunday 10:30am, Party of 4. We were told that the wait was going to be 40 minutes. We had a sneaking suspicion that they were lying. Indeed, they lied; we were seated 10 minutes later.

I found stuffed French toast on the menu. I felt the allure, having experienced delicious stuffed French toasts before at Sabrina’s. Then I found that the special was chocolate-hazelnut-cream stuffed French toast. I was sold. Then I read “house made scrapple”. Yes please. When we ordered, the very nice waitress expressed her concern that others at the table would be envious of my meal. I agreed and began planning my defense just in case they attempted to overtake me for my food.

Result: The French toast by itself was good – the nutella filling was great (I wish it was a little thicker or a little fluffier – it was a little soupy). Add in the scrapple, and wow! Of course, this scrapple was “home-made” and you could see the textural difference as it felt like it was actually composed of fine shreds of meat – but let’s face it – you don’t eat scrapple because it’s meat! Scrapple is clearly a meat-like-thing and should be crunchy on the outside and smooth on the inside (like pre-chewed sausage). Consequently, the “homemade-ness” of the scrapple didn’t win me over (don’t get me wrong – it was good – but not better than a well-executed not-homemade scrapple). The nutella-scrapple combo however was dynamite. I will now carry nutella with me to South Jersey diners if there’s a chance that I might order scrapple (best non-homemade scrapple: Mayslanding Diner ca. 2000).

Definitely a great meal and worth revisiting – especially if Honey’s has the audacity to make you wait in the cold.