to try out a new coffee/crepes place...
just a few steps away from the now defunct lesbian bar, The Flame on Park Blvd...
The seven story high rise, dubbed "Mr. Robinson" is a mixed use project. On the bottom floor is Refill, the new coffee and crepes cafe.
The color scheme is turquoise and multilayered wood (sorry, I know that's not the real term for this but...). The seats look like Eames but I doubt they are real ones.
Their mugs are real pottery, complete with the name of the cafe stamped on it. They are made by a local artisan and are on sale at the cafe.
Coffee beans are from Bird Rock (I noticed that their bags againts the wall match the turquoise accents here).
We each ordered a drink plus crepes for me and TC and the hipster toast (ha hah) for Bert.
The space is dog friendly (we saw some cute dogs that morning, sadly not pictured).
Our drinks in the handmade mugs:
TC's medium chai latte with soy
My iced cold brew (medium/Uganda):
Bert's large Nutella mocha with coconut milk:
All drinks were really good. I ended up adding milk and sugar to my cold brew.
Our breakfast orders:
TC's crepe with brie, fig jam and fresh apple slices.
Bert's double order of toast with turkey, provolone, cranberries and interestingly, spinach on top. I had to look at the online menu when writing this post because it looked like pesto at first glance.
The bread is from Bread and Cie, which I'm not a big fan of. Their bread is hard and crusty; I don't like how hard their bread is. It's "cut-the-roof-of-your-mouth" hard.Bert did enjoy his toasts, as you could tell from the double order, he was quite hungry that morning.
My crepe was filled with eggs, bacon, cheddar and spinach (raw spinach instead of that wierd looking pesto spinach). The menu description also indicated that it was served with "bruschetta" on top. I was thinking of the toast with the topping (which I've always associated as bruschetta) and thought why the heck would they serve that with a crepe?
In this case, the topping was the "bruschetta" since in America, the tomato-based condiment is considered bruschetta and refer to the topping rather than the bread. Sorry for the long explanation but I had to look this up because it seemed odd in the description.
The crepes' portion was quite hearty; TC and I could only manage maybe a fourth of the crepe which ended up being delicious leftovers the next day.
Mini pottery vases in the bathroom!
Waiting outside for Bert and TC...
My cold brew was refreshing on this warm morning.
I've alway liked the font for The Flame. Very art deco.
It turns out that two years ago, the parking garage on the corner of Park and Robinson was torn down. The Mr. Robinson highrise took its place.
Article:
"Updates on three new uptown buildings" SanDiegoStreets, Dec. 23, 2014 (this has great photos of the "before" photos of the space that the Mr. Robinson building now occupies)
+ FB page & official site for Mr. Robinson
Update - new article from the SD Reader:
"8.50 for Toast? Let's call it an open-faced sandwich"" SD Reader Sept. 10, 2011
Refill
3752 Park Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92103
(619) 677-2242
www.refillcafe.com + reviews from you know where
We enjoyed our drinks here as well as our food but I would prefer crepes to toast, especially if they use that horrid Bread and Cie. toast. Sorry, but me no like. We went on a Sunday, therefore, no need to feed the meters, thank goodness. There's nothing worse than putting coins in a meter for a set amount of time and thinking in the back of your head how many minutes you have left and not being able to enjoy your time somewhere because you're thinking of the damn meter. At least, that's my hangup.
Down the street was the Hillcrest Farmers Market that we wanted to explore, plus it would give us an excuse to walk off our breakfast...
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