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Categories: Sandwiches, Bakeries, Breakfast & Brunch [Edit]
308 Greenup St
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Awesome breakfast joint if you looking for a little more creative selection than what you would usually find in the cincy area.
Pastries are fantastic, servers are friendly.
This part of Covington appears to have cleaned up a bit in the past few years and Greenup Café is one of the small businesses to have sprouted up in this area. It's a nice converted home with bright red walls and a fireplace in the main room with a small serving area on the side. There's also a side brick patio as well as a mini-bar in back which are also quaint.
The menu is fairly interesting and I tried the create your own meal with eggs, bacon and toast. Although not the most complex meal, these were fine. Friends tried a different version of the create your own meal (with goetta) and the pancakes, both of which were considered good.
Although a cute spot with reasonable food, I'm going with three stars because of some service issues. There was only one waiter (serving three tables), who seemed frazzled and was a bit slow. It took a while to get our order and some things were forgotten (I had to go and get silverware for our table; word to the wise, it's next to the front door). Forgivable, because the server was friendly and we weren't in a hurry, but this keeps me from going with four stars here. Overall, still a solid breakfast choice.
Greenup Cafe delivers in the atmosphere, cute, fun and relaxing areas.
The food is decent. The Goetta Eggs Benedict is surprisingly light and the tarte du jour is usually a safe bet. The 'roasted' potatoes on the side were not good. Not even almost good.
Bagged tea is a little over priced, but probably worth it factoring in the atmosphere and friendly service. The friendly service (although not extremely fast) wins the 4th star for this establishment.
There are a lot of brunch options in Cincinnati. This is a solid choice, but probably not the Cincinnati area's best offering.
Good quiche, nice atmosphere. Very cool old house. Friendly service..Yum
Nice urban looking place. Has a great backyard, perfect for a nice summer breakfast or an afternoon brew. The food is great, and the prices are reasonable. Enjoy!
I used to work over the river in Covington, KY and visited the Greenup Cafe on a three or four occassions. So, I feel like I gave the place a fighting chance - and let's be honest from my personality shown in other reviews... I don't give second chances often. So, don't screw them up.
Congratulations, Greenup Cafe. You managed to screw up every single time. But, I brought the pain again and again and again. Damn me.
The decor of the restaurant is admittedly quaint. The room themes vary and there is a patio for the Spring and the Autumn when sitting outside, in my opinion, is worthwhile during the middle of the workday.
The food is an attempt at being something that the restaurant is not - that is in New York City or a much larger metropolitan and trendy city with great outside cafes that offer memorable experiences. A sandwich is a sandwich is a sandwich - I don't care how you frame it with some special mayonnaise and/or aiola and a sprig of basil.
The service was also lacking - but poor service is what I've come to expect out of Cincinnati.
I love this place! The setup is so cute. There are 3 different rooms to sit in (I think) and you can also sit in the patio or out near the streets. All the rooms have random furniture and art on the walls.
We got here kinda of late and after a really busy Saturday. They had to close the kitchen after our orders! Everything was sold out!
I ordered the Puff Pastry with goetta and poached egg. The BF ordered the Omelette w/ Smoked Salmon. The Puff Pastry was amazing! I also never had goetta and this was a great first experience.
We even got a free cookie because our order came out a bit slow. Definitely worth the wait.
People in cincinnati really love dreadlocks. Counted my sixth head of locks in less than 24 hrs at this establishment.
Bomb breakfast food and coff.
I'm not sure why it's taken as long as it has for us to write about this place. It's one of the first restaurants I visited when I moved to Northern KY earlier this year and, I've already frequented the place for brunch about 3x more than I've gone to any other restaurant in my entire lifetime . Suffice it to say the food is good: Damn good. But there's a lot of restaurants in the area with good food, so thats not the only reason Sierra and I are regulars.
First of all we need to discuss the pastries. A few years back I was in Paris just long enough to climb the Eiffel Tower and eat a few croissants. It was an eye opening experience especially for the burgeoning foodie in me who, up to that point, thought croissants were best had freshly warmed out of an exploding tube. These were different from anything else in the world. You could taste the history. You could sense years of trial and error, successes passed down through generations, finally culminating in the buttery layers between my teeth. Until I was introduced to Greenup, I hadn't experienced anything close. But the pastries here, honestly, are right on par. My favorites are the sticky bun and the raspberry cheese danish which, in particular, forces you to acknowledge why cheese and danishes were paired together to begin with. It's one of the best things I've ever eaten.
The second thing to point out about this place is that it's unique. There's always a place for pancakes and bacon but does everybody need to do it the same? You want to go out for breakfast/brunch on Saturday and "variety" usually means one egg or two. I can make plain eggs. But I can't make quiche like they do or homemade brioche like the kind they serve with their Eggs Benedict. And finally the coffee. I don't know where they get it but this, also, is the closest thing I've had to the European version.
For all you foodies in the city, Jean Robert has been serving up several new and exciting, French flavored food place every year. I was having an under caffeinated morning when I visited for breakfast and coffee. What surprised me the most was the warmness from all of the staff. everyone seemed very busy but not necessarily overworked and still had time to smile and get the order correct. What surprised me almost as much was how reasonable the prices were for what I had assumed was a fancy french place.
The food was quite good. I ordered the puff pastry and my partner ordered the classic quiche with two mango mimosas. We sat in the back courtyard, partially shielded from foot traffic by light shrubbery and french inspired yard decor. It sounds kitschy but it wasn't pretentious or badly done. Service was fairly quick and the weather was perfect. Coffee was refilled often and was really good. I would have lingered longer if I hadn't been running late for work.
Best eats I had while visiting Cincy!
This place is insanely cute - I couldn't stop smiling as I checked out each of the cheery rooms. Too cute!
They were really busy when we stopped in but luckily my hunger was offset by the sleepiness leftover from my red eye flight. Ouch. We were served by a spacey dude who, on another occasion, might have annoyed me, but that day amused me.
I had the grilled cheese and it was fantastic! And I'm am expert on this matter so you can trust me. Man had an omelet and it was also great. They were out of the avocado croissant thing, which was a bummer bc that just affirmed it was really good.
I would eat here once a week if I lived here. But, um, that's not gonna happen...
Unlike other yelpers, luckily we didn't have to wait for a table when stopped in for breakfast on a glorious Saturday morning. However, minutes after we were seated, the place began to fill up very quickly.
As a new fan of goetta, I went with the puff pastry filled with goetta, piperade, an over-easy egg, and hollandaise sauce, which was served with country potatoes. This dish was sooo tasty--creamy, zesty, and filling. To wash it down, I ordered the smoothie of the day, Tutti Fruitti. While there was a mix-up at the smoothie bar and my ticket was missed, this tropical beverage was worth the wait.
My boyfriend ordered the omelet medley (which looked exactly like Kim J.'s photo), and since there weren't any left-overs on his plate, I'm thinking it tasted as good as it looked.
Our bill for two entrees, a smoothie, and a tall glass of OJ, including tip, came out to over thirty dollars. While we wouldn't normally spend this much for breakfast, the food at Greenup Cafe was worth the splurge.
If you're looking for a more charismatic alternative to First Watch, stop by Greenup Cafe.
Overall experience: 4 1/2 stars
I too had my first goetta experience here and must say that it will most certainly not be my last! It was stuffed within a pastry, which was topped with hollandaise. The side of potatoes could have a had a bit more flavor, but all in all, it was a very nice way to start the day. Good coffee too.
The decor is also quite good and inviting.
Add the Greenup Caf to Chef Jean-Robert de Cavel 's growing restaurant empire. Unlike its three sisters, Jean-Robert at Pigall's, Bistro Jean-Ro, and Pho Paris (recently moved down the street) which can be expensive and a little more upscale, this French-styled cafe is a very casual and less pricey affair, designed for sketching in your moleskine notebook while enjoying a cup of coffee and a pastry.
Just block from the south end of the Roebling Suspension Bridge in Covington, the Greenup Caf serves breakfast and lunch daily, but you find yourself waiting up to 45 minutes for a table on the weekend, especially when the weather is nice. On a recent visit, we enjoyed the Eggs Benedict on brioche with roasted tomatoes, spinach and Canadian bacon, the "Tart du Jour" (zucchini and artichoke) with fried eggs and sausage, and a buttermilk pancakes filled with apples, cranberries, and pecans and topped with maple butter. All were excellent and well worth the wait.
Definitely one of the best breakfasts I've had in Cincinnati.
I never thought it would happen but it has: Paris has come to Kentucky! Jean-Robert de Cavel's venture across the river to quaint Greenup Street has transformed the Bluegrass into Les Bleus. The menu, ever changing according to what is fresh and local (to some extent), reflects classic French caf cooking. Not identical reproductions, but the right style: quiches, tartes, roast meats, mixed vegetables, no fancy combinations, just rich, flavorful options.
And pastries! The pastries are available all day long, but will usually be very picked through by the evening. If you're feeling indulgent, the chocolate croissant will do you good. But why stop there? You can also get Jean-Robert's legendary pot de crme - if it's still available.
Greenup has a lot of nice features: a gorgeous garden patio (which actually grows vegetables and herbs used in the restaurant), pre-ordering lunches to go, the day-round pastry shop, brunch on Saturday and Sunday, discount bottles of wine on Wednesdays. Tough to imagine a better spring evening than eating a pot de creme on a patio with a bottle of wine and a few friends. And if you wish to precede it with a fine French meal, well!
Reservations are all but essential for weekends.
Very enjoyable breakfast on a Sunday morning. We had a nice waitron who was very efficient.
There were so many good things on the menu, it was hard to pick. I selected the Omelette with medley of mushrooms, tomatoes, gruyere cheese, asparagus, and creme fraiche, and I added in smoked salmon. The omelette was great. It was served with some potatoes on the side. They were okay, but nothing special.
My sister had the buttermilk pancakes with bananas and sauteed seasonale fruit. She enjoyed it.
Coffee was good and they had a great selection of good tea.
Poor service and overpriced food.
Wow, I saw some awesome looking baked goods upon entering this place. When you walk in you see a bakery display case and a coffee to-go counter that resembles Starbucks, but way nicer. When we arrived for breakfast this morning. A cinnamon roll the size of a Buick caught my eye right away along with some very inspired looking pastries.
Breakfast is served. The menu is very small; an omelet, which I had was very good with spinach, creme fresh, cheese and avocado.. nummies!!! They also had a pancake dish with fresh bananas, Oatmeal with fruit and not much else, but that's alright, they do what they do very well and nice people.
It looks like it is a converted house with very colorful paint and interesting architecture probably built 100 years ago. Make sure you write down the address or you will pass right by it. Yes, I would go again and again. Great coffee too!!
Note: It would be really nice if they would fix the front door so that it does not slam so loudly echoing through the dining room, it is honestly startling.
It is a very small, quaint little spot located just south of the river separating Ohio from Kentucky.
Most fantabulous brunch spot in Cincinnati. Great french cuisine (Jean Robert), awesome coffee, tea, and pastries, chill atmosphere. No liquor liscense yet, but they've got a great beer 'n wine selection. If they got their liq. lisc., a bloody mary bar would make their brunch the total package! No reservations for brunch so expect a modest wait on Sundays.
great coffee, great atmosphere.
had my first goetta experience here, made me want to buy a block to bring home! croque madame on brioche toast was good, but could have really excelled with a more generous helping of bechamel and gruyere.
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