The Green Mountain Cafe: Come Hungry!

Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/pancakes-crepes-meal-food-crepe-640868/

Claire Johnson, Writer

When one walks into The Green Mountain Cafe and takes a look at the menu, one gets the feeling of a very regular small-town diner. For anyone who stays a while, though, it is a family place you just can’t help but return to. 

If you come in the morning and take a look at the menu, classic American breakfast staples like pancakes, french toast and simple pair-ups of well-known breakfast foods are listed in black and white. There are a few irregular twists also listed under the heading “Specialty Items.” These include “The Covered Bridge” and “Country Style Benedict.”  The former consists of an English muffin, ham, two Poached eggs and a creamy cheese sauce, and the latter of a grilled biscuit, fried chicken, eggs, sausage gravy and home fries or hash. 

It’s a comfortable place about a minute drive out of St. Albans. Even when they are busy, they have always found us a seat, but if you plan on going during the rush on a weekend, you may need a reservation. 

It’s a homey place with a free candy bucket on the counter leftover from Halloween, and the new decorations for Christmas already up. It’s often occupied by families with children and older folks looking for delicious, homemade tasting, well-known American classics. 

If you have a family, note that even though it is marked as a “Baby Bear” on the menu and only costs $3.50, the Baby Bear flapjack is not a good choice for just one child as it is roughly the size of a hubcap and has a better chance swallowing your child than your child does of finishing it.

As well as the normal menu, The Green Mountain Cafe always has a whiteboard up where they list mouth-watering specials, which at the time of my visit were praline french toast, grilled blueberry or pumpkin streusel muffins and a Philly cheesesteak omelet. My mom and I both opted for some diner coffee, which was kept topped up throughout our whole breakfast, and a grilled pumpkin streusel muffin to share. I settled on normal eggs Benedict, which is not on the menu but can still be ordered, while my mom chose eggs, bacon and toast. This whole order, plus a lemonade I got instead of water, came out to an astonishingly cheap $27.06. 

The grilled muffin came first. It was warm, soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside and sweet. It tasted exactly like fall. I tried to leave my mom her share of the muffin but couldn’t help taking a few bites off of her half when she looked away. 

Next was our main course. In the past, I have always found my Green Mountain eggs Benedict perfect in every way. However, this time I found the sauce to be slightly cold in some places. Not only that, but my fries, which are usually piping hot, came out at room temperature. It didn’t put me off too much. The eggs were very warm, and the English muffin was warm and toasted. After finding my course slightly less hot than I wanted, I tried some of my mom’s to check its temperature. It was absolutely delicious and piping hot. 

While my review hasn’t been completely positive, I do highly recommend paying a visit to The Green Mountain Cafe. My mother and I came at 10:00 a.m on a Sunday and chose our seats and had our drink and food orders taken within a few minutes. It didn’t take long for the food to be served either. While it wasn’t completely up to their usual standard, It was delicious and well worth the money. Our bill always comes to less than we expect and a bit less than you could expect from the breakfast menus at both the St. Albans Diner and Maple City Diner.