SOUTHERN MAINE: Lil's Cafe

One day, the little lady came up to me and told me about a place near her friends house, called Lil's. Lil's is a small brunch cafe located across the street from the entrance to the shipyard in Kittery, Maine. She went on and on about how good it was, and being the alpha male that I am, decided to try this place out for myself. So we ventured out to NH's northern neighbor, and I have to say, I was very impressed by this little cafe spot, and let me tell you why you should be too. 

a bountiful pastry selection

ALSO being the slow moving sloth that I am, I ended up getting to Lil's right after they stopped serving breakfast, which I believe is 11am. So if you're in the mood for a biscuit, quiche, or sausage egg wrap, I'd suggest you get there early enough. But I still was able to grab a coffee, and a pastry to warm things up before I went with something a little more lunch-worthy. 

I went with a Chocolate Latte (whuuu?) and what I heard they were known for, a crunchy cruller.
Normally latte's, coffee's, and espresso's come paired with a mocha flavoring, but the choice of homemade chocolate was interesting, and ended up being one of the best latte's I've had in a long time. The smooth chocolate delivered a much needed change from the weird off chemical shots of mocha that typical coffee places employ. The cruller, sweet but not so sweet you felt sick from a normal doughnut shop, had a slightly crunchy top, which helped you slow down from jamming the whole thing in your mouth like instinct begs you to. The cruller comes in at you, all sweet and awesome, the coffee then rears up and hits you in the mouth like

 Their lunch selection felt like your classic small cafe selection, but definitely didn't taste like one. 

she got some weird veggie thing which she SAYS is good, but not being a FGFB staff member,
who knows if her palate can be trusted...

 I got the Roast Beef with horseradish mayo, arugala, cucumbers, and cheddar cheese all on a freshly baked focaccia, served with house made chips and a pickle. 

 The roast beef was decently portioned, but much like the last two seasons of True Detective, there's quite a few stars of this sandwich. The roast beef, which you'd figure would be essential, took a back seat to the horseradish mayo, which provided a gentle heat among the fresh greens of arugula and cukes. The REAL main player of this sandwich though, was the focaccia. Normally focaccia is a little drier than I'd like from a sandwich. I often times exclaim "the wetter the better" like our pal Dirty Mike, when it comes to sandwiches. So when I ordered it on the focaccia, I was prepared to be underwhelmed.  Much like my favorite Wookie however, the bread over delivered, and ended up being flavorful and Chewie.

HONORABLE MENTION: I feel like the house made chips should be spoken about. They were pretty much your standard in-house chip, thick, salty, good, but nothing really differentiated it from a any other house made chip. Which in the end, is fine, and might work out because you don't want something TOO weird to distract you from the pleasantness already on plate. I get it, it's good, I'd get it again. 

 I can't exclaim enough at how great this place was. Not only in atmosphere, or location, but also in quality and friendliness. This place also caters to a much more hip crowd than I belong to. It has a small vinyl collection for you to peruse inside of an old bank vault, so if you're ever dying of hunger AND cultural enlightenment, Lil's might just save your life. 

I give everything about Lil's a solid A.

I haven't tried 90% of the menu, but the experience, and the quality of what I had there was definitely top notch. I'm already excited about the next time I'm in Kittery. 

-Josh

http://www.lilscafe.com/

7 Wallingford Square, #106

Kittery, ME 03904
(207)703-2800
hello@lilscafe.com

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