FeedTheFreaks

Nested in the middle of several  businesses surrounding it. The outside is quite humble. When you first walk in, you get the aroma’s floating over to you from the kitchen and the pleasant banter from the host(s). Well, that is a normal visit… as it turns out freaks can smell their own because we were greeted at the door by an overly-enthusiastic previous-night-party-goer. His eyes were red and he looked like he could see for miles.

After he let us walk to our booth, I noticed where a bar would be in a normal restaurant, this place held a coffee shoppe area complete with a barista. We had a seat and within 10 seconds we were greeted by Jade… or Jada? She was very nice and attentive. Unfortunately for her, Applecheeks and I had a temporary mental breakdown while staring at the menu. The number of caffeinated (and non caffeinated.) delights was nearly staggering.

They appear to have a daily changing drink specials. We both went for it but in different ways, I had the iced version (they call it frozenchino) and Applecheeks went for the cappuccino style. Today’s flavor was “Almond Joy”. Sadly, like most frozen drinks (alcoholic ones included) the ice melted quickly and led to a watered down flavor. Before that happened though, the drink was quite tasty, if small. (The photograph makes it look like a normal sized drink, but most of that was large crushed pieces of ice.)

Finally, I arrived a choice for breakfast… see if you like the sound of this: fresh croissant topped with eggs, spinach,ham, cheddar jack cheese  with hollandaise sauce and your choice of breakfast side.

I thought so too! So, I ordered that with their red potato home fries. When this bad boy got to the table, I’d say they’ve got a great presentation and I’m ready to get down on some topped croissant. After the first few bites I noticed a distinct lack of seasoning. There is something to be said about having the ingredients speak for themselves. But even in a fancy steak house, they still use salt. I felt like there was no attempt at flavoring the eggs or spinach. Even the hollandaise lacked that acidic hint you would expect. The red-skinned potato home-fries had the same issue; no seasoning. So in the end both dishes were well cooked, well prepared and well served but lacked seasoning.

That being said, I intend on giving this place another shot. Applecheeks waffle looked awesome and service was great. We may hit up their lunch menu or some such.

There was one thought on my mind as we barreled down the highway at the breakneck speed of 48 miles per hour. Waffles. When I want waffles, I really want waffles…and they’d better be good ones. So, we googled around a bit and found a little place in Downtown Orlando that serves…You guessed it! Waffles!

As usual, it was a biotch to find parking, but once we did the walk from the parking garage wasn’t too far. We popped into the entrance and was greeted by an attractive seating hostess, and an old guy who asked us if we were excited. He didn’t work there, he was just really excited about the food.

“You having breakfast?” he lunged toward us with big, outstretched arms. We involuntarily took a step backward and agreed that we were, indeed, having lunch. “You excited? It’s really good here!” he wiped imaginary drool from his mouth, “Really good!”
The hostess looked a bit uncomfortable, but played it off well. “He’s just really jazzed about our breakfast.” I think he was also jazzed about the sangria, to the tune of 7 cups or so. So, with a glowing review still lingering in our thoughts, we took our seat in a comfortable booth. The lighting was surprisingly romantic for a breakfast setting, there was a bunch of local art on the walls, and a snooty food channel on their over-large flat screen tv’s. In a word, it was “cool.”
We took a peek at the menu, but I was already well positioned to vote for waffles. Man biscuit lingered over the menu before deciding on his own meal. Almost everything sounded amazing. Of course, hunger is a tasty sauce.

We both ordered specialty drinks – the Chef’s Choice. Mine was a hot almond joy cappucinno. It was pretty tasty! Very sweet and more like hot chocolate than a proper cappuccino, but the foam was foamy, the coconut flavor was rich and aromatic, and the sweetness was thick. It was maybe a bit too sweet. I might have preferred an actual cappucino, but for the sake of tasting like a candy bar, they pulled it off. If you want something to kill your sweet tooth, I’d highly recommend it.

After a minor deliberation on the toppings, I did settle for a “Downtown Waffle” with bananas and berries. This also included a glob of whipped cream the size of my fist. The waffle arrived in no time, brought to us by an incredibly attractive server (who reminded me of the chick from Firefly – the tall pretty black one? Married to Wash? I can’t remember her name. Help me out, readers.) Come to think of it, every member of the staff was attractive. It was more like a modeling agency than a restaurant. Even the greasy chefs were hot in a greasy Gavin Rossdale sort of way. Oh right, and they had food, too.

One bite of my giant, fluffy, heartbreaking waffle and I was in love. It was crisp on the outside, warm and inviting in the middle and delicious all over. The fruit was ripened well (though the strawberries were more on the tart-side, the whipped cream helped with this.) The hot Firefly server brought me some syrup in a handy squeeze-bottle (which I imagine cut down on the stickiniess factor.) I didn’t need it. The waffle, cream, fruit and my fork were all that were required for this symphony of happy noises. Waffles, you are my sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. Sorry Man Biscuit… I’m leaving you and running away with this waffle.

So, that’s the scoop. Sexy watiers and hot waffles, steamy creamy sweet drinks and a cool hipster atmosphere. Check it out, it’s worth a bite.