Cafe Latte

We originally staggered into Café Latte after spending a day north of the Twin Cities in Braham, Minnesota’s pie capital. We had just judged the small town’s pie-baking contest, and after sampling eighteen of the finest apple, rhubarb, and berry pies imaginable, all we could imagine for supper was a green salad!

Café Latte filled the bill perfectly. It is a breezy cafeteria that offers all sorts of fresh, healthy salads to order, i.e. Indonesian rice salad, grilled chicken Caesar salad, asparagus-lemon salad. It is entirely possible to eat a meal of which any nutrition warden would approve. There are lovely sandwiches available, different interesting soups every day, and small-size pizzas ranging from au gratin roasted vegetable to a “Mediterranean” with olives, cheeses, artichokes, and basil-flavored sauce.

What we soon learned when we headed for Café Latte to find relief from our pie-eating pig-out was that this place also happens to make some of the best cakes on earth: chocolate banana, German chocolate, orange chocolate-chunk cheesecake, chocolate kahlua torte, English pecan triple sec fudge, and the king of all pastries, turtle cake. Inspired by the candy of the same name, turtle cake is three chocolate layers gobbed with an obscene amount of caramel frosting and loaded with pecans. It is a dessert no sweet tooth can refuse, even after eating eighteen pies.

As the restaurant’s name suggests, all sorts of espresso-based drinks are available (as are wine by the glass and afternoon tea, the latter served with scones, cookies and little sandwiches). The fancy coffee beverage of our choice is a Mandarin cocoa latte with candied orange slivers and chocolate sprinkles.