Unique food a delight at modern coffee shop

As you walk into the popular downtown cafe, you are greeted with a casual atmosphere, earth tones with washed out pastels and jazz playing overhead. Culprit Cafe Omaha is a spacious, modern yet modest coffee shop located in the Old Market.

There are several positive amenities of this cafe. First, they are open 8-3 all week long and serve breakfast as well as lunch. Next, there is a wide variety of seating stretched throughout the restaurant as well as a sitting area for people who chose to take their meals on the go. Lastly, the service was outstanding. It was friendly, informative and also surprisingly fast for the complexity of the food.

Culprit cafe has a wide variety of food for both breakfast and lunch. Both menus cater to those with needs such as vegan-ism/vegetarianism. The brunch menu runs from typical things such as scones, to more extravagant meals like and egg white frittata. The lunch menu is even more extensive and complicated. Their prices are very cheap considering the size of portions you receive as well as the quality to the food.

When ordering food, at first the sandwiches seemed rather pricey. It was then explained, that with each sandwich you get a choice of a mixed green salad, pesto aioli potatoes, or a vegan soup of the day.

The open faced veggie sandwich was absolutely to die for. It was made up of red pepper and curry hummus, roasted tomato, zucchini, fried eggplant, Swiss cheese all on top of rustic boule bread. The sandwich itself was huge and rather hard to eat but it did not take away from the flavor at all. The hummus was the most intriguing part of the meal. It was a bright yellow color due to the turmeric, and tasted mild but nothing like traditional hummus.

A new menu item is the spicy Tuscan sandwich. On the toasted and chewy ciabatta bread was thyme cream, small pieces of chicken thigh with layers of capicolla on top. The thyme cream was a good texture and complimented the mild chicken and spicy ham. Usually when eating chicken, you have wings or legs so it was very uncommon to have such small pieces of the chicken thigh on my sandwich. The sandwich was large and planned very well because all the flavors were paired in an elegant way.

With each of the sandwiches came a side. The pesto aioli potatoes went very well with the open faced veggie. The f

lavor and consistency of the aioli was creamy and not too overwhelming. The potatoes themselves are lightly fried which added a subtle crunch with a soft center. The mixed green salad was nothing out of the ordinary but still very enjoyable. It was a mix of greens with feta cheese, cucumbers, candied walnuts, and a balsamic reduction. Although not everyone likes balsamic dressing so it could be viewed as a negative, the combination of flavors was put together very precisely.

This cafe is very unique and the most enjoyable part was the atmosphere. I noticed how comfortable all the workers looked and acted and it was amusing to see the owner’s’ grandmother mingling with the customers and playing with the children. The relaxed and casual atmosphere is one of the biggest positives of the cafe. I recommend this restaurant to anyone looking for a good place to eat unique food.