Lucky's Cafe in Cleveland

This past weekend Antoine and I, with Cheese in tow, drove up to Cleveland to spend the weekend with my hlp, Amanda, and her boyfriend Aaron.  Amanda and Aaron just moved into three-story duplex with a bazillion rooms on the east side of Cleveland.  In planning to come up for the weekend Antoine and I insisted that we go to Lucky's Cafe for breakfast Saturday morning.  It's another Diner's, Drive-ins and Dives spot that Antoine and I were anxious to try.  Plus, brunch is the best meal of the day!  So, we got up early, because I'm a nutso and was worried about fighting a crowd of hungry people and made our way over to Tremont.  Lucky's is a pretty small place that, in addition to serving up awesome locally produced meals (some of the ingredients come from the garden behind the restaurant) also makes delicious-looking pastries (we got a blueberry coconut scone to go and boy was it tasty!).

 After seeing the Triple D episode that featured Lucky's Cafe, I knew what I wanted for breakfast.  The homemade granola with fresh fruit and yogurt, drizzled with honey.  Look how gorgeous it is!  Look at the apple, it's like a freaking sculpture.  I almost didn't want to eat it, but I was hungry, so I did.  It was fantastic.  It was supposed to come with pineapple but I asked them to keep that off, so I was worried that there wouldn't be much fruit...obviously no need to worry about that!  The granola was chewy and delicious with bits of dried fruit in it.  The honey balanced out the tang of the yogurt perfectly.  Antoine was worried that it wouldn't be enough for me, but I was totally stuffed by the time I finished it.

 Antoine naturally went for the cheddar biscuits and sausage gravy with eggs (also featured on Triple D), served with hash browns and grapes.  He loved it!  In fact, he said that it was even better than Mayberry's biscuits and gravy (which was previously his favorite biscuits and gravy).   I tried a bite, then another bite, then another.  I gotta say, this is the only biscuits and gravy I've ever had that I would actually consider ordering myself.  The cheddar in the biscuits took them to a whole other level.  And the hash brown thingies were pretty fantastic, so flavorful that you didn't need any extra salt, pepper or ketchup.

Antoine and I shared a side of pecan crusted bacon...because, really, how could you pass that up!?  It was tasty!  Sweet with a little bit of smokey saltiness in the background from the bacon.

Aaron got the baked mac and cheese, and let me just say that if ordering were a competition, Aaron would have totally won!  This was beyond AMAZING!  The best mac and cheese I've ever had.  Period.  Baked to perfection with cheddar, mozzarella, brie and parmesan cheese and served with a side of homemade applesauce.  I will admit that when Aaron left the table to use the restroom, all three of us attached what was left of his mac and cheese like vultures.  It is now my goal in life to re-create this mac and cheese at home!  Challenge accepted!

 Amanda got the veggie omelet with mushrooms, spinach and white cheddar, served with hash browns, fruit and banana bread.  She said later that the omelet was pretty standard, especially once she tasted Aaron's mac and cheese and my granola.  But she, like Antoine, really enjoyed the hash browns.  She also really liked the banana bread, which I tried and thought it was quite tasty.

 So pretty!

(Just outside Lucky's Cafe)  Bunch of weirdos!

I'd highly recommend Lucky's to anyone visiting the Cleveland area.  It was delicious.  And if you like mac and cheese, theirs will BLOW YOUR MIND!!  Word of warning, if you see these two weirdos (pictured above), run away...or they will make strange faces at you!