Butter Bakery Café

Butter Bakery Café
Dan Swenson–Klatt, the owner of Butter Bakery Café, is passionate about scones—eating them, baking them, and serving them to discerning scone-sumers. He teases head baker Amy Kovacs that she’s his sole scone-making peer. Kovacs is really more of a cakes and éclairs specialist. Isn’t this sounding good already? The Kingfield–Lyndale neighborhood joint is equal parts café, coffee shop, and bakery. Beyond the “pretty stuff,” as Swenson–Klatt calls Kovacs’s pastry handiwork, Butter offers local organic eggs, pancakes, quiche, granola, and a few straightforward sandwiches for brunch. The mood is friendly and informal with a touch of chaos during the rush. If you’re venturing in from outside the ’hood, don’t waste a minute feeling like you don’t belong—just jump in line, go with the flow, and remember to bus your dishes at meal’s end. It’s easy to extol the virtues of a good neighborhood café—especially one that knows how to work its relaxed, light-hearted charm. —Kate Rogers

3544 Grand Ave., Mpls., 612-521-7401, butterbakerycafe.com; M–Sa 7 am–9 pm. Brunch Saturday and Sunday 8 am–2 pm.

Order: The biscuit sandwich (add bacon or sausage), cinnamon streusel coffee cake, scones, éclairs, or a whole-grain pancake.

Libations: Peace Coffee, Roastery 7, and White Rock Coffee; Nantucket Nectars and Odwalla juices; a recently introduced “red espresso”—an espresso made with rooibos tea. No alcohol.

Brunchmeter: 3 and a 1/2 out of 5