Nestled inside a red brick building on East Hillside Drive sits Feast Bakery Cafe, along with an outdoor patio with metal chairs and tables with umbrellas.
Inside the cafe, warm yellow lighting and an assortment of wooden booths, chairs and tables give a comfortable, homey feeling. A large glass pastry case, decked with the day’s freshest batch of cakes, breads and cookies greets people as they come in through the front doors.
Feast operates under the motto of “one cannot live well, if one has not dined well,” the condensed version of a quote taken from Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own.” Staying true to its motto, the restaurant makes sure that its customers dine well on carefully chosen food.
All of Feast’s organic and fair trade coffee beans are locally roasted by Brown County Coffee, and the food ingredients come from sustainable Indiana farms. To name a few: Heartland Family Farm, Fischer Farms, Gunthorp Farms and Buffalo Nickel Ranch.
Each meal of the day features a menu with different choices, along with separate menus for brunch and the cafe’s coffee bar. As the days go by and changing seasons bring new ingredients to the table, Feast updates its menu accordingly.
Now that early fall and its chilly, misty mornings are finally upon us, the coffee bar’s seasonal section features lavender lemonade, a fresh squeezed lemonade with house-made lavender syrup; Basil Bee, made with fresh basil, honey, bitters, espresso and cream shaken and served over ice. For the adventurous gourmand looking for the perfect fall alternative to a pumpkin spice latte, try the caramelized date latte, a concoction of pureed medjool dates, allspice, espresso, brown sugar and steamed milk.
Among all the dishes offered at Feast, tamales take center stage. Steamed in corn husk wrappings and made of masa dough, these little Mesoamerican-originated taste bud delights are made daily at the cafe with a myriad of stuffings. Possible options include cheese, chorizo, roasted vegetables, black beans, pork, and even lentil and plantain.
Guests can choose to enjoy steaming hot tamales right at the restaurant, accompanied by Feast’s delightful homemade salsa, or buy them frozen to stock in the fridge in the event of any future cravings.
For me, brunch at Feast on Sunday mornings is always a grand affair. The light brown-colored menu is always a reflection and celebration of the season’s bounty, generously gifted to humans by nature. When I was there last weekend, patrons were huddling near each other around tables, sipping their drinks, devouring their food and engaging in animated conversation. Despite the full house, the atmosphere remained cozy and quaint. The little cafe bustled with movement and murmured conversation, ready to take on a new day.
