Nita Millstein opened The Peach Café in Old Town Monrovia on May 2, 2005, naming her Southern-tinged eatery for the popular fruit’s sweet flesh and vibrant color. Normally limited to breakfast and lunch, Nita keeps additional dinner hours on Friday nights to coincide with Monrovia’s Family Festival street fair, which runs weekly from March through Christmas. I’d eaten breakfast and lunch at The Peach several times, always with success, so I was intrigued to sample the expanded dinner menu.

The 96-year-old building was originally used as a garage and last housed a Christian bookstore. No axel grease or Bibles are in evidence, but you can still find authentic brick walls and exposed wood beams. Millstein recruited funky Glendale artist Robert Brady to populate the space with his colorful 3-D pieces. His centerpiece is a twisted wood chandelier, strewn with red Christmas lights and shimmering Mardi Gras beads. Brady even designed the café’s peach logo and metal branch (shown above). If you’re not interested in banquettes or stand-alone tables, there’s a plant-lined patio.

Breakfast is available all day, highlighted by massive buttermilk pancakes that are studded with plump blueberries and seasoned with orange juice. Weekends only, Millstein offers crisp chocolate waffles and her unique improvement on eggs Benedict (pictured). Instead of Hollandaise and English muffins, expect molten white cheddar and Belgian waffles blended with Nueske bacon, maple syrup and cornmeal. Even the ham is better, salty country ham instead of staid city ham.

The Peach Café features several unique sides at breakfast and lunch, including bourbon-mashed sweet potatoes, rich with potent liquor but still plenty sweet.

Breakfast potatoes are equally stellar. Skin-on russet potatoes are folded with red onions, scallions and cream and grilled until nice and crusty.

Lunch revolves around innovative sandwiches and salads. The Open-Face HBAB is stacked with slabs of country Ham and oozing Brie, sprinkled with scallions and slathered with Apple Butter. It’s a sandwich of contrasts, simultaneously salty, creamy and sweet. For my side, I selected phenomenal scalloped potatoes, flavored with cream, “spices,” nutmeg and white cheddar.

A heavier lunch option is the Texas Melt: La Brea Bakery focaccia, slices of house-roasted turkey breast, barbecue sauce, yellow cheddar, tomatoes, and crispy onion rings. I don’t know what any of those ingredients have to do with Texas, except for maybe the barbecue sauce, but the sandwich is still delicious.

Nita previously mentioned enticing Friday night specials like pork roast stuffed with figs and prosciutto, pecan-crusted halibut, and “the world’s best meatloaf,” made with beef, pork, Dijon mustard and yogurt. Unfortunately, none of options were available. Still, the Chicken Marsala ($14.95) was commendable, half a luscious bird doused with Marsala sauce and mushrooms. The pricey poultry was served with Brussels sprout-like florets of green cauliflower and a mound of steamed white rice.

To drink, there are several sumptuous smoothies, including mango, cranberry-raspberry and surprise, surprise, peach. Here’s the rich mango smoothie, crowned with a dollop of whipped cream.

It took Millstein and her staff months to perfect The Peach Café’s signature coffee blends, and it was well worth the effort. Foam-capped mochas lattes (left) are sensational. Even their elemental coffee (right) is smooth.

Baker Cate Manzo has created an arsenal of pies, cakes and cookies. In summer, expect blackberry pies with thumb-sized berries. In the fall, of course you’ll find cinnamon-tinged apple pie, but you’ll also find more unusual offerings like this generous wedge of pear pie. When available, top cakes are carrot sprinkled with coconut flakes and Meyer lemon, made with citrus from a local tree. There are also streusel-topped fruit bars and golden raisin oatmeal cookies.

This slice of streusel topped blueberry pie was bursting with tiny berries.

Monrovia is situated in outer reaches of the San Gabriel Valley, easily an hour round-trip from my apartment, but The Peach Café’s food, I’m willing to leave a carbon footprint 60 miles wide.

Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Friday 7:30 AM - 9 PM
Saturday-Sunday: 7:30 AM - 4 PM

This entry is filed under American, Breakfast, California, Los Angeles, Southern California.