Dining Out: Jesters Coffee Shop, Brookfield, CT (Breakfast)

I was going to post other things I’ve put together on my ownsome, but my cord to download from the camera has gone walkabout.  Without telling me, how unpleasant of it!   I DO want to post something today, so I think I will post a dining out review, since those photos are on the less-obtrusive phone.  And I can mail them to myself.

Jesters is a coffee shop in Brookfield, CT, that doesn’t just sell coffee, it sells a variety of smoothies (and you can come up with your own from the fairly large selection of fruits and veggies on site).  My favorite, which I’ve come up with on my own, goes more to the savory end of things:  cuke, kale, beet, carrot, lime, parsley, and when they have it, cilantro.  Hmm, when I make home-smoothies, I like adding a sliver of onion… I may ask for that next time I order a smoothie there!  (When I first discovered juicing/smoothies, I had no idea that the beverage wasn’t supposed to be liquid veggies and predominantly savory… but hey, even though I now know better, savory is still my personal choice!)

Omelet, cut open to view some of the spinach. Cheese is a combo of cheddar and mozzarella. I vary it up every time I go. Coffee mug holds a lot, and is re-fillable at no extra charge.

 

They also make their own kombucha, four different flavors, and they sell it so you can take quantities home with you.  I haven’t tried this yet, but I haven’t ruled it out.  I think it is the “sweet” indication that stalls my exploration.

Along with beverages (their coffee is a choice between dark or regular roast, or you can have a variety of flavored coffees – some of which, like pumpkin or egg nog, are seasonal – I do like their egg nog coffee they serve in December, but have not sampled the others), they serve breakfast and lunch.  For the small size of the place, they have a strong variety of food, and they will adapt your order to your needs.  A lot of the traffic is take-out.

I haven’t stopped in for lunch often, but the menu at lunch is also promising.  This review will be breakfast-oriented.  I’ve eaten there enough that I can say I’ve tried every breakfast item I am interested in trying.

I feel and know I am best on a low simple-carb diet, and as regulars of my blog know, I cook gluten free at home (actually, I will have an exception down the road because I don’t see a way around it, and I want to COOK that particular item at least once with wheat so I can try to develop a work-around…).  Since I cook more at home, and try to limit eating out, I figure in my personal case I can eat out with some level of gluten, and so I order some things out, with it.  (PS, they do have gluten-free toast on the menu. For a little extra, you can also get organic eggs.)

What I am not crazy about:  The fried eggs alone seem watery, and the bacon is ultra thin, bland, and disappointing.

What I love:  The omelets.  The bacon is fine IN the omelet.  One only needs a hint, there.  The omelets can be crammed full (or less full) with just about anything you’d love in an omelet.  Toast comes with, but I always decline.  I’m satiated as is.  The photo here is an omelet with mozzarella, cheddar and spinach.  There are four or five other cheese choices, and a full range of veggies to put in there.  I do not know if they carry sausage; I’m not interested.

What I love:  The pancakes.  Okay, I don’t think they can make these gluten free, and I would personally order pancakes only super-rarely.  You have a choice:  plain, blueberry, banana, chocolate chip.  I’ve tested blueberry and banana.  Both of these are good.  They come with butter and REAL maple syrup, no fake syrup in sight.  The photo here is a short stack of two blueberry pancakes, but alas the blueberries sank out of photographic sight.  They were there.  These pancakes were great, light and fluffy and full of real-ness.  And yes, lotsa blueberries.  They just followed Newton’s Law of Gravity.

I love the flavor of maple. I don’t like loads of sugar. So I do any pancakes as accordingly as possible, with just a sprawl. Great flavor from real syrup, minimal sugar. (But, I do go for the butter…)

There isn’t much syrup in that dispenser in the photo, but that is simply because I TOLD them not to waste more than a taste on me.   You’ll get more if you don’t specify.  I will note the one time I let them give me the standard three pancakes, I could not eat that third.  PS, if you love waffles, they have them here, too.  I have not tried them but I would assume they are good.

What I love: The Smoked Lox special.  I change it out and have them put it on rye toast rather than on a dense, stomach-clogging bagel.  They do sell a variety of bagels, but I really have a problem digesting that heavy of a bread in one sitting.  Or even in two.  For me, rye toast is much more flavorful than most other forms of bread, and if I am going to eat some food I don’t consider particularly healthy, it had better have some good flavor to it!  I suspect I am one of the few people who patronize this place (ah, oh no, they’ll figure me out!) who orders the smoked lox special on toasted rye bread.  Since sometimes it comes open-faced, or sometimes closed-up.  Depends on who is cooking that day.  I like it either way, but there’s a niggling suspicion that usually (not always) I get more salmon when it is open-faced.  The special comes with cream cheese, red onion slivers, and capers, and (almost always) lemon juice/slices.

They source a really GOOD smoked salmon for this!

What I love:  the smoothies as I’ve modified my own, detailed above.

Service and staff are extremely friendly.  And if I am not grabbing just a coffee to go, I ask for my coffee in a ceramic mug.  It might be environmentally friendly that way, but I think the coffee tastes better that way, too.  Who knows?

There are not a lot of tables, but this is usually not a problem, as I’ve indicated a lot of the business is take out.  They have free wi-fi, and they provide an issue of the Wall Street Journal for the days that particular paper publishes, for patrons to peruse.

I’m not a “breakfast wrap” person, but there are a variety of these you can order from the menu.  I think I like air pockets in my bread.  Or, something.  Whatever it is, wrapping stuff just doesn’t have it, in my book.

PS:  Editing to add:  the eggs are real eggs, not from a liquid-containing carton.  I cannot digest “liquid egg product”, so I’m glad I don’t even have to ask!

Breakfast Rating:  a good solid 4.5 out of 5.  Just don’t ask for a side of bacon and expect it to float your boat.  But yeah, we should eat less bacon, right?

Jester’s Coffee Shop
331 Federal Road
Brookfield, CT 06804

Very close to both CostCo and BJ’s warehouse stores, if you are of a mind to budget shop in the area…