Babycakes
Created | Updated Oct 19, 2003
Babycakes is a restaurant here in Poughkeepsie, NY, USA, at some number, Collegeview Avenue. If you want to get to it, it's along the north side of Vassar College. I don't know how to get there/here (Vassar College), I was driven here from La Guardia.
Babycakes, though. Nice little café sort of thing. The front is sort of the reverse of a bay window, with the sides pointing out (or rather, the middle pointing in, as they can't take up any of the sidewalk). The bit that sticks in is the door, and along the window is a high counter, that you sit at, and can reach by virtue of high stools. There's also a ledge under the counter you can stick your feet on, if the cross-bars of the stool aren't good enough for you, or you get bored of having your legs in the same position for the very very long time you'll be sitting there, or at least will want to be sitting there, because of the greatness of this café/restaurant. The seats at the counter allowed you to take on the full meaning of the name "Collegeview" of the road, as they faced south across the street at Vassar. Nice place, if you happen to be pretty liberal, and are looking for a small, liberal arts college in NY state that will be asking you for quite a bit of money.
The problem with this jutting in in the middle of the door, although only two or three feet, which also turns itself into the problem of the whole place, is that it takes space from the sitting area. The tables, arranged in two columns running from the door to the back of the room, are close enough as it is, but are squished even further by having less space. But it adds a cozy atmosphere.
Above the tables along the right wall, are a series of blackboards, on which is written the menu. One board for breakfast foods (served all day), one for lunch (or dinner--I was there at lunchtime, but the place also tends to close at six), and one for specials. They're pretty vegetarian friendly--or so I will personally assume, as they had stars up next to all the meals that were vegetarian, and there were a few. And this is the restaurant half of it (though in a café sort of style, as they don't actually have menus, nor a waiter: whoever you ordered food to at the counter brings it to you, if it has to be prepared, and you clear your own plates and glasses).
At the back of the room is a counter, the kind that has a bit at one end full of card-swipes and cash registers (well, one register), and a person to give your order to. To the right is a big display case full of probably the best pastries you could get at a café in the US, short of maybe... Café-town, hidden somewhere in the midwest. Or maybe one or two in Manhattan--or so I guess, just because the place seems to have that sort of image. Though most of those are probably owned by Starbucks, which isn't cool. These are still awesome awesome pastries and bakedgoods. Above this counter is a list of drinks, including, but not limited to, vanilla chai with soy milk, and hot apple cider. I had the hot apple cider, my girlfriend had the vanilla chai with soy milk, and according to her it was awesome. They didn't strain the hot apple cider, so it had a bunch of cloves in it, which, as you may or may not know, add a nice taste but don't taste good. You may like that sort of thing (hot apple cider with floaty bits), but I didn't. I ended up trying to pull it all out with my fork, and putting it on my napkin. There were also two fridges with bottled drinks on the right wall, leaving just enough space for the people to get at the pile of dishes, and a path to the kitchen, which had its doorway in the right corner of the room.
What I ate was the french toast. Somewhere in the breakfast section. Really quite good. Very very fluffy; a nice change from the french toast I'd been having from my college caf for the past seven weeks, which was kind of thick. It was two normal sized pieces, sliced into halves, topped with strawberries, and icing sugar sprinkled everywhere, and a cup of syrup on the side. Very nice. Left me very sticky, though, and from using my napkin as a clove repository and being too lazy to want to get up and get another napkin, and ended up dried-sticky. Not fun.
So, you may have noticed that I complained about a couple of things. However, just remember that the food and drink were so good that, no matter how cramped I was, how sticky I ended up, how much I had to crane my neck to read the menu, I still came away loving the place.
Babycakes, though. Nice little café sort of thing. The front is sort of the reverse of a bay window, with the sides pointing out (or rather, the middle pointing in, as they can't take up any of the sidewalk). The bit that sticks in is the door, and along the window is a high counter, that you sit at, and can reach by virtue of high stools. There's also a ledge under the counter you can stick your feet on, if the cross-bars of the stool aren't good enough for you, or you get bored of having your legs in the same position for the very very long time you'll be sitting there, or at least will want to be sitting there, because of the greatness of this café/restaurant. The seats at the counter allowed you to take on the full meaning of the name "Collegeview" of the road, as they faced south across the street at Vassar. Nice place, if you happen to be pretty liberal, and are looking for a small, liberal arts college in NY state that will be asking you for quite a bit of money.
The problem with this jutting in in the middle of the door, although only two or three feet, which also turns itself into the problem of the whole place, is that it takes space from the sitting area. The tables, arranged in two columns running from the door to the back of the room, are close enough as it is, but are squished even further by having less space. But it adds a cozy atmosphere.
Above the tables along the right wall, are a series of blackboards, on which is written the menu. One board for breakfast foods (served all day), one for lunch (or dinner--I was there at lunchtime, but the place also tends to close at six), and one for specials. They're pretty vegetarian friendly--or so I will personally assume, as they had stars up next to all the meals that were vegetarian, and there were a few. And this is the restaurant half of it (though in a café sort of style, as they don't actually have menus, nor a waiter: whoever you ordered food to at the counter brings it to you, if it has to be prepared, and you clear your own plates and glasses).
At the back of the room is a counter, the kind that has a bit at one end full of card-swipes and cash registers (well, one register), and a person to give your order to. To the right is a big display case full of probably the best pastries you could get at a café in the US, short of maybe... Café-town, hidden somewhere in the midwest. Or maybe one or two in Manhattan--or so I guess, just because the place seems to have that sort of image. Though most of those are probably owned by Starbucks, which isn't cool. These are still awesome awesome pastries and bakedgoods. Above this counter is a list of drinks, including, but not limited to, vanilla chai with soy milk, and hot apple cider. I had the hot apple cider, my girlfriend had the vanilla chai with soy milk, and according to her it was awesome. They didn't strain the hot apple cider, so it had a bunch of cloves in it, which, as you may or may not know, add a nice taste but don't taste good. You may like that sort of thing (hot apple cider with floaty bits), but I didn't. I ended up trying to pull it all out with my fork, and putting it on my napkin. There were also two fridges with bottled drinks on the right wall, leaving just enough space for the people to get at the pile of dishes, and a path to the kitchen, which had its doorway in the right corner of the room.
What I ate was the french toast. Somewhere in the breakfast section. Really quite good. Very very fluffy; a nice change from the french toast I'd been having from my college caf for the past seven weeks, which was kind of thick. It was two normal sized pieces, sliced into halves, topped with strawberries, and icing sugar sprinkled everywhere, and a cup of syrup on the side. Very nice. Left me very sticky, though, and from using my napkin as a clove repository and being too lazy to want to get up and get another napkin, and ended up dried-sticky. Not fun.
So, you may have noticed that I complained about a couple of things. However, just remember that the food and drink were so good that, no matter how cramped I was, how sticky I ended up, how much I had to crane my neck to read the menu, I still came away loving the place.
