I ate at The Purple Cafe last weekend with some girlfriends to celebrate a birthday. It was a Saturday night and packed. The atmosphere is nice, and I particularly liked the candle votives that were protruding from the brick walls. Our server was nice enough and made sure we knew about the cheese and wine flights. We ordered wine and the baked brie appetizer and our main courses. The brie is supposed to take 15 minutes to bake, so we expected it to arrive with our food. Time goes by and no brie. Eventually, we got our entrees...still no brie, and no waitress. We were constantly cocking our heads to track her down and finally after we had finished our dinner, we flagged her down and told her we never got the appetizer. She looked surprised and said she thought they had brought it out already. Well, a quick check on our table in the hour that we'd been there might have helped. My friends had salads that they both enjoyed, while I had the lobster mac 'n cheese which came with crunchy green onion and what looked like sweet potato chips on top. It was good and debatably worth the $20 price. We shared the 'peanut gallery' for dessert which was mouthwatering. The bread was really good and the butter was soft enough to spread, a simple thing that not every restaurant gets right. On a side note, the wine portions were skimpy and they serve it in huge glasses which make it look even more skimpy (a possible ploy to get you to buy another glass?). I would consider going back for the food and setting, but not the service.
Pros: atmosphere, food
Cons: shoddy service
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