Sampler at Bird’ s Nest Café
Frankly, there’ s Nothing the Sampler likes better than a cozy little out-of-the way spot to while away a few afternoon hours with good food, interesting drinks, and that kind of friendly, comfortable ambiance that makes the whole place feel like a big, comfy chair.
The Bird’ s Nest Café is tucked away behind some lovely outdoor gardens just behind the Old Bartley House at 36 West Franklin Street.
Inside, the kitschy, eccentric décor is part espresso shop, part country airs and entirely cute and charming. Our efficient and knowledgeable server was quick to take our order, beginning with a stroll through the tea and coffee menu, which presented a plethora of choices.
My first instinct was to have an espresso, possibly a cappuccino or a latte, since it was apparent from the equipment along the wall that they were ready and able to produce any sort of coffee-based drink imaginable.
Of course, you could just enjoy a creamy, dark chocolate hot chocolate made with steamed milk and marshmallows, or“ Golden Milk”— steamed milk with turmeric, ginger, and cane sugar.
In the end, Mrs. Sampler settled on something called“ Chai Steampunk” made with black tea, spices, and milk, which proved, after she had offered me a sip, to be addictively tasty and delicious.
I had a cup of hot black tea, though I could have chosen lavender or ginger lemongrass lemonade, orange juice, or one of the craft sodas like Sprecher’ s Cream Soda or Boylan’ s Birch Beer.
44 Our Brown County • May / June 2018
The“ Brown County Brunch” menu featured delights such as sweet potato waffles, sunrise street tacos, and a classic Croak Madame— an open faced farm-bread sandwich with ham smothered in lemon, garlic, and mustard cream sauce with a sunny side up egg on top.
Instead, we ordered from the daily special menu, which included a deconstructed salad plate that appealed to my carb-loathing wife and a tuna sandwich for me.
The salad was truly a thing of beauty with greens tossed with a light fig vinaigrette accompanied by a swarm of side ingredients; a boiled egg, a red pepper, artisan crackers, three kinds of cheese.
The tuna was also attractive, with a cute little wire sandwich basket with a little cole slaw cup perched on the edge, begging for attention. The excellent tuna salad was on a fresh croissant and accompanied by“ Off-Road Joe’ s sweet potato chips,” without any gluten, lactose, trans-fats, MSG, cholesterol, preservatives, or artificial flavors and sweeteners.
Everything was delicious, filling, and artfully presented.
And just as every brunch buffet must have its adult beverages, there is a slightly more spirited side to the Bird’ s Nest, a full menu of traditional apothecary cocktails made with herb-infused bitters and alcohol,“ mostly for medicinal purposes.”
“ Country pharmacists and grannies everywhere would concoct these potions using herbs and plants from their gardens, preserving them in alcohol,” according to the menu for“ The Cocktail Fairy- Wood Fairy Apothecary.”
Those traditional concoctions have been reborn and repurposed,“… making the leap from the drugstores of old to the craft cocktail movement of today.”
The Sampler has had his share of experiences with the wood fairies and other mythical Brown County creatures, answering the siren call of the cocktail fairy more often than should be reported. It would not be hard at all to picture him, down at the Wood Fairy Apothecary, knocking back a Ginseng and Tonic or a Hot Buttered Rum.
Some of the offerings are not only weird and mysterious, they sound downright alluring:“ Essence Elixir,” Bourbon and vermouth with an orange twist,