My daughter recommends it.
It is the cafe used in a scene of the movie Rocketman. Turns out, the cafe is very popular. We are lucky to get there early because when we leave, the lineup to order food trails right across the cafe and out the door.
A poster on the wall of Ali standing over a fallen Liston, 25th May 1965, with the caption “First round, first minute.” Other photos of the boxing world fill the walls in one corner.
On another part of the wall, photos of football teams, both posing and in action, though I don’t recognize the teams or the players.
At the cash, a woman who takes our orders and yells them back into the kitchen. From a distance, just hearing her booming voice calling “BAKED BEANS, HASH BROWNS, TOMATO”, I think it to be the voice of a man.
But it is a silver-haired, petite, middle-aged woman. Her normal voice is beautiful and melodic; her voice to the kitchen is a resonant baritone like she is an actor on stage speaking to the back of a large audience. I watch her for several minutes, amazed, until it is my turn to order.
I select the Set Breakfast deal. Yes please to an extra egg. And yes, milk in the coffee. I ask her a question only to hear her melodic voice one more time before heading to a table.
The food is delicious, which is likely why the cafe is so popular. In every other way, it looks ordinary – laminate tabletops, fixed metal chairs, uninspiring half-curtains on the windows.
But the energy. Wow!
I was to have a lilt to my step for the rest of the day.
