New Moon Café, which has sat comfortably along Fourth Avenue in downtown Olympia for the last 15 years, has made a few changes.
Fourteen new owners took over last July, turning the café into a cooperative, and the group has settled in enough to keep the popular breakfast/brunch/lunch spot reliable for regulars, with just enough change to call it their own.
The upgrades include new menu design and items, such as a chicken bacon ranch burger, build-your-own omelets, cobb salad, a grilled feta sandwich, Wild Cat - a house specialty that has sautéed onions, peppers, mushrooms and marinated tempeh over garlic rosemary potatoes - and for kids, a grilled Elvis, with peanut butter, honey and banana.
Presented with these option, plus a few others, I settled with the grilled feta sandwich, which promised feta, sweet roasted pepper, tomato, spinach, roasted garlic and balsamic vinaigrette on sourdough. My lunch date - my mom, who is always the health-conscience - ordered The Crescent, which includes garlic chicken, stir-fried veggies and brown rice.
>>> The Crescent: Grilled garlic chicken breast chopped up and stir-fried with veggies and brown rice. Photo credit: Nikki McCoy
My sandwich delivered on the promise of flavor, with feta, veggies and vinaigrette pleasing my taste buds. I was especially happy with the sweet roasted pepper, which still had little flecks of roasted skin and tasted divine with crunchy sour dough. I chose a side of steamed kale, fresh from Kirsop farm. Yum!
And while I tried something new, I couldn't help but notice the old standbys being snatched up around me. A neighboring table ordered the Amsterdam omelet with spinach, onion, tomato, avocado and smoked Gouda. I refrained from sneaking photos, but it had cubes of tomato and avocado tumbling out, paired with just-the-right-crispiness hash browns. Delish.
>>> Grilled Feta: The author's choice, and a damn good one at that. Photo credit: Nikki McCoy
And the couple behind me ordered biscuits and gravy, and a northwest benedict, which features wild-caught smoked salmon. Drool.
Anyway, I could go on about their delectable menu, or their honorable mission of being a cooperative, or even how cute and quaint the restaurant is with its table notebooks for tagging. I won't. I'll let you discover, or re-discover, it's awesomeness on your own.
NEW MOON COOPERATIVE CAFE, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, 113 Fourth Ave., Olympia, 360.357.3452