I have a weakness for maps. Road maps, weather maps, even Google maps — I love them all. Maps not only point the way to the destination, they can provide a pleasurable distraction during an otherwise tedious journey. What else is there to do between turns behind the wheel other than comb the atlas for funny town names and daydream about diversions not taken?
Kathy Brown must feel the same way. Rather than cover the tables at
Latitude 41n with cloth, the owner shellacked them with all manner of
world maps. Each table at this Detroit-Shoreway café offers a
fresh new landscape to survey, making tabletop travel the obligatory
appetizer. By the time our lunch arrived one afternoon, the wife and I
had settled on a lush patch of Nicaragua’s Pacific lowlands as our
retirement home.
So, what the heck is Latitude 41n, anyway? “That’s where we are,”
explains Brown, in navigational terms we all can understand.
In addition to being the parallel on which Cleveland sits, Latitude
41n is a homey neighborhood diner serving breakfast, lunch and dinner.
When she opened the eatery about a year and a half ago, Brown told me
that she wanted to create a simple place for folks to “eat, sit and
watch the world go by.” A comfortable lounge area offers guests soft
seating and free Wi-Fi, and customers are welcome to camp out there as
long as they wish. For the best view of the “world going by,” folks can
sit at a window-hugging counter that overlooks bustling Detroit
Avenue.
A large counter serves as the café’s center of operations. On
it, a small chalkboard ticks off the day’s specials, and menus flesh
out the rest of the options. Diners place their orders at the counter,
pay and sit wherever they like. Order a beer or a glass of wine from
the small but adequate list, and it will be brought to your table while
you wait.
Though Latitude has the mood of a diner, it has the food of a kicky
little bistro. Rare is the corner diner that whips up such a summery
gazpacho ($4), simultaneously smooth and chunky, with just the right
balance of sweet and heat. Customers can and often do make entire meals
of Latitude’s bountiful salads. Even the half portion of the Twisted
Cobb ($6) is ample enough for two to share as a healthy starter. Loaded
with fresh greens, quality deli meat, crisp bacon, ripe avocado,
hard-cooked eggs and shredded cheese, the dish covers all basic food
groups. It even comes with a warm, butter-basted breadstick. Apart from
the dressing, which is obnoxiously thick and sweet, the spinach salad
($6 half/$8.50 full) is everything one expects of a spinach salad. The
pert greens are joined by red onion, bacon, blue cheese, mushrooms and
egg.
Cheese lovers will doubtless dig the Pasta Bakes, a section of the
menu filled with oven-baked pasta casseroles. The seafood festival
($13.95) arrives at the table crowned with a brown and bubbly cheese
crust. Below, tender penne pasta, large shrimp and the occasional
sliver of crab swim about in a mild cream sauce. A similar dish
features macaroni with cheddar cheese sauce ($9.95).
Brown was the original owner of Snicker’s Tavern when that
restaurant opened some 25 years ago. And like that now-defunct eatery,
Latitude wears its diversity on its sleeve. Some subtle and
not-so-subtle clues as to the diner’s gay-friendly status can be found
both in the room and on the menu. Gay or straight, pizza fans can all
support the Island of Lesbos pizza ($11.50/small), a thin-crusted pie
that swaps zippy pesto for the usual tomato base. Toppings include
sun-dried tomatoes, artichoke hearts and feta cheese.
You don’t have to get here at the crack of dawn to enjoy breakfast;
a number of the most popular brunch items are served all day. The
massive Southwest quesadilla ($8.50) is a pair of nicely crisped flour
tortillas loaded with scrambled eggs, chorizo, avocado, cheese and
beans. A fresh-tasting salsa adds just the right zing. The Lost omelet
($8.50) is indeed stuffed as promised. Sadly, it is stuffed not only
with spinach and feta, but also thick, raw mushrooms. Latitude’s
breakfast potatoes are fine in a pinch, but they would be vastly
improved by a texture other than soft.
There are times here when laid-back can start to feel a wee bit
sluggish, when that beloved “Latitude Attitude” veers off into
“lunchroom lethargy.” Fortunately, those spells appear to be limited to
off-peak times. And to while away the downtime, diners can always map
out their next daydream.
This article appears in Jul 15-21, 2009.
