Cafe Terracotta

Homemade Goodness

Getting There

Café Terracotta is located in an area of Old Towne Littleton that is swimming with "mom and pop" type restaurants and store fronts.  It is a renovated, Victorian era home located just off Main Street. While the Café was relatively easy to find, parking proved to be a little challenging. They do have a small parking lot in the back and street parking is available at no charge if you can find it.

The Atmosphere

The restaurant is cozy, warm, and inviting.  The walls are a beautiful exposed brick which is an excellent backdrop for the artwork on display (all of which is for sale if you see a painting that strikes your fancy).  As stated previously, it is a renovated house so the seating area is on the smaller side which means there is a good chance of a wait to get a table during busy times.  If there is a line, they have a small lobby area and outside there is a beautiful wrap around porch as well with tables and chairs to use.  For cooler days, complimentary blankets are offered to keep patrons warm as they wait.  In the Spring and Summer, beautiful gardens adorn the courtyard outside and they also have a patio if you prefer outdoor seating. They offer bar seating which faces the open kitchen for those people that want to watch the action as their meal is being prepared.  It is an open setting so it can get a little loud when the restaurant is full.  Overall, Café Terracotta is a very welcoming space.

The Eats

Some dear friends of ours came with us on this excursion which is always a plus.  This way, we are able to sample more of the menu and get a better idea of what the restaurant has to offer.  The thing that caught our attention regarding the menu was that it contains breakfast and lunch well into the afternoon.

A friend ordered the country breakfast which consisted of 2 made from scratch biscuits with pork gravy, eggs, and bacon.  We found it interesting that the gravy was a pork gravy and not the usual country, sausage gravy that is found in most breakfast restaurants.  It was very flavorful and was a welcome change that gave the same old biscuits and gravy dish a little kick.

Another item ordered from the breakfast menu was the Monte Cristo Sandwich.  This sandwich is made up of turkey, ham, raspberry preserves, and Challah French toast bread.  For those of you not familiar with a traditional Monte Cristo, this sandwich is typically battered and deep fried.  This particular Monte Cristo was grilled, so it wasn't quite as heavy as most Monte Cristos.  Aside from possibly needing more raspberry preserves, it was quite tasty.  It came with a side of hash browns which were also served with a twist.  Not grated like typical hash browns, they were served in very, very thin strips and then griddle fried.  On first glance, they resembled a small pile of onions but the strips had a nice flavor and crisp texture.  Unfortunately, they came out cold so that was a bit of a disappointment.

Two sandwiches were ordered from the lunch menu. The first being the French Dip with Cheese.  This was interesting because instead of the typical roast beef found on this type of sandwich, they used a smoked roast beef and white cheddar cheese.  Although it was good, the smoked meat paired with the white cheddar cheese was a strange pairing and wasn't a table favorite.  The au jus was amazing.  It was obvious it was the actual drippings from the meat and not a powdered, reconstituted mix that you find with most French dips at other restaurants.  This sandwich was served with homemade potato chips.  They are made in house and are simply delicious, crisp, and fresh.

The second sandwich was their house specialty, the Pikes Peak Burger.  A hamburger with blue cheese, bacon, and fried onion straws.  The burger was cooked perfectly - juicy and tasty.  The blue cheese was flavorful without being overwhelming and the bun was grilled making it crispy and chewy at the same time.  It was served with house made French fries that were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

We also ordered two additional sides from the menu.  Their homemade coleslaw was excellent.  It was crisp, fresh, creamy, and had a hint of cucumber and caraway.  The other side we tried was the potato salad.  Again, creamy and flavorful with bacon.  And as we all know, Bacon can heal the world.

And now for...Desserts!

Vanilla Bean Crème Brulee - Creamy custard, not gritty, flavorful, with a crispy sweet shell.  Delightful!

Bourbon Pecan Tart - Homemade crust, flavorful, and nutty.

By far the crowned jewel of the dessert menu was Café Terracotta's Nanimo Bars.  This is a Canadian dish consisting of dark chocolate, walnuts, coconut, and a graham cracker crust. It is layered and then cut into slices.  They were a cross between a layer bar and candy.  It was very rich but had a cookie crunch to it.  Definitely the favorite dish of the day.  It is worth a trip just for this dessert.

The People

Our server Andrea was lovely.  She was quite helpful with suggestions and descriptions and did very well handling our many questions. Although Andrea was amazing, we found the rest of the staff to be slightly disconnected.  This was maybe our only "lack luster" moment at Cafe Terracotta.  If you visit Café Terracotta, please request Andrea.  She is a true delight.

Summing Up

Café Terracotta made for a tasty outing.  We would certainly consider it a good option while shopping on Main Street. They offer a fairly varied menu with good sized portions and fresh made food.  We award this restaurant a fork.  We would suggest visiting in the Spring or Summer to take advantage of the beautiful gardens and neighborhood. 

Thank you Andrea and staff for a really good meal.

Our December lunch pick will be Amerigo Delicatus

 

The Officially Unofficial Voting Legend
Take it with a grain of salt, we're not professionals.
	Awesome place, we’ll shovel more food in our face!
	It was okay. Not our favorite, but we’ll take another stab at it.
	Didn’t make the cut.