On the Rise
Michael Bruno noticed he was seeing familiar faces twice a day.
“The highest compliment I can get is I would see somebody for breakfast, and then at 1 o’clock, I would see them for lunch,” says the Blue Door Cafe & Bakery owner. “They were like, There were so many things we wanted to try that we had to come back.”
In response to the demand for Blue Door’s artisanal European-inspired breakfast and lunch items, Bruno is widening the menu with offerings like tastings and expanding the cafe’s space to double its seating capacity to about 140.
It has a spiffy repainted interior with new tile flooring, new contemporary lighting and a fresh reproduction of the “At Moulin Rouge” painting by an Akron teacher that offers Parisian ambiance. Later this year, Bruno is extending seating by closing in the patio and adding a new rooftop patio that’s set to open next summer.
New tasting menus allow customers to choose three, four or five small plates. Those looking to make it a boozy brunch can add expert wine pairings as well. There’s also a new weekday 8 to 11 a.m. happy hour with $5 mimosas, discounted classics that come with a complimentary cup of Angel Falls coffee or Secret Tea Society loose leaf tea and more.
A must-try is the buttermilk jalapeno waffle that’s served with Green Circle buttermilk-brined chicken, which comes from chickens that are fed table scraps on farms. “These chickens are running around in the yard and being fed how they used to be fed in the old days. It makes chicken that’s an awesome quality,” Bruno says. Whiskey butter, rosemary- and bourbon-infused Ohio maple syrup and a mole-inspired hot sauce add a burst of flavor.
He is also excited about the high tea at the Ritz plate, based on authentic high tea he had in London. “They give you these tiny sandwiches where they cut off the crusts and make little toasts,” he says. Find inventive finger sandwiches like creme fraiche and lingonberry, Green Circle chicken salad, smoked king salmon and cream cheese and lemon cucumber, with preserves, house-made lemon curd and clotted cream, a European specialty that the Blue Door makes. “That’s heated very gently for 12 hours. It’s really thick, rich, flavorful,” he says.
The high tea plate offers a fine display for bakers’ fresh creations like house scones and brownie petit fours, in addition to the regularly baked bread — baguette, Swiss braid, sourdough, challah and multigrain.
Through all of the expansion plans, Bruno hasn’t lost sight of the importance of the bakery. After all, Blue Door began in 2009 with the purchase of European artisanal baking equipment and a dream he has harbored since visiting a bakery in Germany more than three decades ago. So as the restaurant expands, the bakery rises too.
“Without the bakery, the Blue Door wouldn’t exist,” Bruno says.
Dine in, drive-thru or carryout, 1970 State Road, Cuyahoga Falls, 330-926-9774, bluedoorcafebakery.com