Butter Cafe (Facebook / T: @thebuttercafe / IG: @thebuttercafe)
1106 Brown St. (map it!)
Dayton, OH 45409
(937) 985-9917
Open Mon, 8a-2p; Tues-Sun, 7a-3p
Vegetarian/vegan/gluten free? Y/Y/Y
Kid-friendly? Y
Visited: Saturday, July 16, 2016 at 9:30 a.m.
Last weekend we planned a trip with the boys to see the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton. We simply can’t do a day trip with ONLY one destination, so naturally it turned into a full day of both historical and culinary adventures.
It call began, of course, with breakfast. On the suggestion of a Twitter friend, we plugged the Butter Cafe into the itinerary and started there! Butter Cafe is in a cute neighborhood south of downtown Dayton. The building is an old house with the cafe and bakery built onto the front, so it’s a series of small rooms filled with tables.
We were seated in the second room, up a short flight of stairs. Notice the wooden floors, little closets, and big Ikea lampshades.
They serve a small selection of brunch cocktails. Mrs. Breakfast w/Nick ordered the watermelon mimosa initially, but our server came back and said they actually didn’t have any alcohol at the moment. He made up for it by bringing her a drink later, on him, he said.
We had a busy day ahead of us, so we got right down to business eating. We started with a small bowl of oatmeal, flavored with brown sugar and a generous dollop of butter.
I’ve been on a real breakfast burrito kick lately, so we ordered up one of those. The burrito itself was simple: scrambled eggs, a few random black beans, American cheese. We added sausage, which meant they cut up some sausage links and mixed them in. Although the food was very good, I was a little confused by Butter Cafe’s MO: the menu speaks of local eggs, free range meats, etc., but then a lot of menu items included things like fake maple syrup, generic sausage links, American cheese. Not bad, just a little at odds.
That said, the corned beef hash is made in house and was easily my favorite bite of the meal:thinly shaved corned beef, not fatty at all, well seasoned. It’s mixed with their house potatoes, which are nice and soft, and again properly seasoned. Came with toast and two spot-on over easy eggs.
Will, who is both a French toast and a fruit fan, went straight for the French toast topped with strawberry, kiwi, banana, and coconut.
Our youngest went for good old scrambled eggs and sausage. They were the last to arrive, a couple minutes behind everything else, which is tough when he’s the youngest and most impatient of the crowd.
But everything was a hit with the group.
All around, though, good comfort food, and a very worthy place to start your day in Dayton. Butter Cafe’s menu covers many of the classics, but they also offer items for both vegan and gluten free tastes, and they get creative with the house baked goods and dishes like jelly donut pancakes or chai French toast.
