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Nibbley’s Cafe in Klamath Falls is home of the famous Oatcakes. Having tasted them for breakfast, we can see why they are famous. Debbie Caldwell and her staff do a phenomenal job.

When you walk into Nibbley’s, you are in a warm, friendly atmosphere. As you enter the dining area, you pass wonderful pastry cases filled with treats that are difficult to pass up. Walls are adorned with a collection of quilts that tell many stories which Debbie is happy to share. Debbie is quick to say, “Do what you love, love what you do and the money will follow.”

How difficult is it to order breakfast? In this case, it was incredibly difficult. There were so many choices, it was a challenge to select. Our group ordered a variety: Corn Beef Hash, homemade corn beef tossed with bell peppers, onions and country potatoes, served with two eggs and toast; Breakfast Burrito, bell peppers, onions, potatoes, sausage, bacon, ham and eggs scrambled inside a warm tortilla, jack and cheddar cheese and salsa on top with guacamole and sour cream; Mexican Scramble, corn tortilla strips, eggs, green chilies and onions scrambled with melted jack cheese, topped with sour cream and salsa and served with fruit; and of course, Nibbley’s Hearty Oatcakes with a touch of cinnamon. Norm had no idea of the size of the oakcakes and ordered three. Needless to say, he ate about half. I had mine as a side instead of toast with my Mexican Scramble that I was sharing with a friend. It was plenty and delicious. When I return, I’ll probably just have the oakcakes.

Our breakfast fare barely scratches the surface of what Nibbley’s has to offer on its menu. They feature items for the carb conscious, as well as tofu and just about anything you desire. Nibbley’s fresh baked oat bread, wheat bread, cinnamon rolls, muffins, and many other goodies are prepared fresh daily in its own kitchen. Prices are reasonable and the value is tremendous.

Debbie was nice enough to share a recipe for her Chocolate Mint Squares.

Chocolate Mint Squares (Brownies)

Brownie
2 cups margarine
8 ounces baking chocolate
8 eggs
1 tsp. peppermint extract
4 cups sugar
2 cups flour
2 cups chopped walnuts

Melt chocolate and margarine in microwave until melted, stirring occasionally.
Mix together eggs, extract and sugar.
Add flour then beat in melted chocolate mixture.
Fold in chopped nuts.
Divide mixture evenly, between two well greased non-handle baking pans.
Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cool.

Filling
2 cups margarine
4 teaspoons peppermint extract
12 cups powdered sugar
Milk to make easy to spread

Cream margarine and powdered sugar, add extract and enough milk to make spreading smooth and easy.
Spread evenly over brownie cake in the two pans.

Chocolate Glaze
4 tablespoons butter
4 ounces baking chocolate

Melt together in microwave, stirring until the mixture has a smooth consistency. Pour onto mint texture and tilt pan until chocolate is evenly spread.
Enough for two pans.

Chill thoroughly before cutting into squares. Nibbly’s are 4 x 5 but you can cut them any size. When cutting bars, dipping knife in hot water often works well.

If you’re in Klamath Falls (www.travelklamath.com), be sure to check out Nibbley’s at 2650 Washburn Way, #120, Klamath Falls, Oregon 97601, phone 541 883 2314. Nibbley’s is open from 6 to 11 Monday-Friday, 7-11 on Saturday and 8-2 on Sunday. By the way, its Oatcake mix is so popular, you can purchase and take it with you.

My Florist Cafe is misunderstood - by nearly everyone. Living in Phoenix you get used to how things are. If you own a food spot, it’s either a coffee shop, a bar, or restaurant. Much like the clear zoning lines between residential and commercial, Phoenix food spots are either this or that, and rarely allowed to be anything else - it would be too confusing.

So while the complaints about My Florist cover a variety of subjects from the lousy menu, the lousy food, and the lousy service, it’s only compounded by the fact that when you enter My Florist, you’re expecting to enter an actual restaurant. Someplace you can get hot food, drinks and listen to jazz music while sitting there pretending you’re in a completely different city. One that’s more metropolitan, one that’s more urban and cool, one that doesn’t shut down at 10 o’clock.

My Florist Cafe fails, consistently and miserably. Oddly, years and years of bad service, bad food, and surprisingly boring bread haven’t stopped people from giving this place a chance. Over and over again.

Sure they have one of the best jazz pianists in all of Phoenix (at least that you can find easily without having to be in any sort of music circles), but is that really enough? With the servers dressed up, disappearing regularly and delivering plates full of hard, nearly unedible bread, while having no knowledge at all about any of the wines they’re suggesting, why do people continue to frequent this place?

I think our expectations are too high. Take away the bad service, don’t expect too much out of the food, disregard any of the servers suggestions regarding wine and what do you have? Probably one of the more unique atmospheres you can find in Phoenix. For the price and the location, there really isn’t anything like the ambiance you’ll get at My Florist Cafe.

With an upscale decor, enough tables to comfortably fit a small group, the jazz piano in the background and the hum of conversation filling the room, I would dare say that there isn’t anything like this anywhere else in Phoenix. Sure there are different places to go such as Chez Nous, but comparing the two would be wrong. Where Chez Nous is a great, dark, soulful R&B lounge, My Florists is excellently open and bright.

However, in the end My Florist Cafe has spent years and years unchanged. You can only say a restaurant could be so much more for so long. After a while, you decide to give up on it. You [http://money.animeyourlife.net] Decide that it really won’t change. You decide that for some unknown reason [http://tech-one.foxnewschannelfive.com], the servers are different every week and so are their managers - but at least the woman playing piano can generally be counted on.

My advice? Try My Florist once a year. Don’t order any food, and definitely don’t order any bread. Bring some friends, order a bottle of wine of your own choosing, not the server’s suggestions, and have a great time in one of Phoenix’s few unique cafes.

Review Summary: 2.3 out of 5

My Florist Cafe

530 W McDowell Rd

Phoenix, AZ, 85003

(602) 254-0333

Coffee is consumed by more than half of the American population. The United States is also one of the many countries where health problems are rising and obesity is almost inevitable. We do love our coffee, but does traditional coffee love us?

Traditional coffee can come with a lot of different side effects. Caffeine is one of the most serious. Too much caffeine in our system, either from coffee, soft drinks or even caffeine pills can do some serious damage to our health.

Some of the problems caffeine can cause are increased heart rates, association to heart disease and anxiety. Restless sleep, for one, is one we all have suffered if we drink a cup of coffee too late in the day. Caffeine also is directly related to the causes of ulcers, acid-reflux, and heartburn and stomach pains.

Coffee beans contain germs, pesticides and chemicals. Although some of the bigger and better coffee brands out there swear their beans are pure, they cannot get around the fact that their crops are always being dusted and looking to grow more, not better!

Now we see that coffee does not love us, there is a coffee product that does treat us well.

There is such thing as a “healthy coffee”. It is called GanoCaf? and is made by Gano Excel.

GanoCaf? is a great tasting and healthy hot beverage that is made from Ganoderma extract. The Ganoderma extract is from a red mushroom called Ganoderma Lucidum that dates back to over 4,000 years ago! Some people who have known about this rare and special herb have also called this herb “The Miraculous King of Herbs”. Others have also said Ganoderma Lucidum is stronger than Ginseng!

Ganoderma can help us in many ways. For starters, when you wake up in the morning and have that first cup of hot coffee, by drinking Gano Excel, you know you are only putting the best into your body.

Ganoderma can provide more vigor and energy, while reducing fatigue. Caffeine may give us the boost we need, but there is also the crash afterwards when the caffeine leaves our system. With the little amount of caffeine in each cup of Gano Caf?, you can be sure to sleep well knowing caffeine will not keep you up.

With over 200 different herbs combined together, Ganoderma will also increase brain activity and mental stimulus, along with the feeling of being balanced and alert.

Gano Caf? is a combination of the finest Brazilian coffee beans and Ganoderma extract. No one knows exactly how they are able to extract the herb mainly to the secret of their success. There are some other companies out there that try to replicate Gano Excel. They crush, grind, and mash up the valued red mushrooms, compromising the look and taste of the product. Without using the correct way to extract the nutrients, these other companies could never give the results that can be found in GanoCaf?.

Since the opening of Gano Excel in the mid 1990’s, they have come up with some healthy and delicious hot drinks. There is Gano Classic, resembling black coffee. One of the most popular is the 3-in-1 Blend, consisting of the coffee, a non dairy creamer and a sweetener. There is a mocha which tastes as good as any coffee shop can give you. There is also a hot chocolate product, a tea product and much more.

Gato Bizco Cafe - How come I’ve never heard of this place? Why haven’t any of my friends ever so much as uttered it’s name in passing? During all the times I’ve eaten at the Flying Biscuit, how come I’ve never looked out the windows and across the street and seen Gato Bizco? I don’t know, but that’s really too bad. I would trade a breakfast at Gato Bizco any day over one at Radial, and maybe even over one at the ‘biscuit’.

A row of approximately eight booths line one wall, and then you have counter seating in the middle with the cook stations against the other wall. It’s an awesomely small, dark space that seems to feel like everyone who comes in is just waking up for the day. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t ever get busy. However, I think you can avoid anything near the wait you’ll find across the street.

We sat at the counter, right in front of the flat top skillet where they cook/prepare nearly all of the food. If you ever get the chance, sit here because you’re in for a show. Cooking is an art, and blah blah blah all that. What I find masterful and great are the line cooks or can prepare six or seven orders at once and keep going, ultimately multi-tasking better than any automaton could. Some people can’t handle one pan in their kitchen, try four pans with omlettes going, a flat skillet in the middle with various toast, biscuits, sausages. You name it, all of it cooking with different start and stop times, and then coordinating their plating schedules. It’s always a great scene to watch. As I sat there eating my delicious omlette, with buttered biscuits (which actually rival the ones as the Flying B), and a cup of coffee, I wished to myself that more orders would come in - just so the show could continue.

I’m not sure if this is a regular thing. Maybe they only have two people working the station sometimes. Maybe the person usually isn’t so great at cooking seven orders at once. Who knows? I just know that my girlfriend and I both agreed that it was an awesomely good spot to observe the slinging hash.

The food? It’s on part with most of the better brunch spots in Atlanta. The atmosphere is more quiet, more neighborhood cafe, and less full blown chain-restaurant. It’s good here and should definitely hold a spot in your rotation of regular breakfast stops.

Review Summary: 4.6 out of 5

1660 McLendon Ave NE

Atlanta, GA 30307

(404) 371-0889