Aaron P.'s Profile

This is the new coffee shop that has just opened in Needham Center in the same location that used to be (dearly departed) Sweet Ru's. The furniture is still the same and there's still plenty of baked goods and coffee but the rest of the menu has undergone a total renovation. I had an excellent croissant this morning, chewy and buttery, but my coffee was only okay. I'll add to this review over coming weeks as I try more of the menu.

(rating as a coffee shop)

Best cappuccino I've had in the local area. Very friendly, lots of wit and whimsy. Just a few tables, though.

I'll revise this quick hit review after trying a few more of their coffees. The beans I bought on my first trip were wonderful and obviously quite freshly roasted. Although they had a few ready-made coffees for sale by the cup this isn't a sit down coffee cafe.

One warning -- if you're approaching on Otis Street from Route 9, you'll being heading towards the back of the store. The front and parking lot (see photo I posted) are right on a really dangerous and hilly curve in the road. So go slow and look for the back of the old mill building on your right before you see the parking lot or a sign.

(4 stars as a coffee place, obviously)

It's more than a bit ridiculous to drive from Needham to Dorchester just for coffee, but this is great coffee. The fact that they were roasting beans in some giant open roaster machine right there when I walked in the door certainly didn't hurt either. This is a kind of a cramped spot, with a few tables and chairs and maybe a half dozen bar stool type seats in the window. Free wifi. Baked good are only okay. The pound of beans I took home were still warm in the bag - sweet.

Needham Center has long had a fine selection of eateries but imagine our surprise while strolling through town recently to find a new outlet of  Boston French restaurant fave Petit Robert Bistro.

We stopped by for lunch. The menu was lengthy and totally French. We started with mediocre garden salads but a BLT with fries and pan-fried haddock were both extremely delicious and modestly priced. We also enjoyed a couple of fine glasses of MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir. Dessert was also very good and inexpensive (white chocolate bread pudding and a perfectly lemony Citron Tart Brulée.

The service was a bit below what you'd expect in downtown Boston and the room wasn't exactly hopping. There's also a bar out front. We'll have to come back for dinner soon. But all in all, another good option for quality dining in Needham and at prices fit for the (economic) times.

You can take the fancy french restaurant out of Boston and plop it down at the Natick Mall but you're losing a huge amount of ambiance, service, delightfulness and charm. The only thing you don't apparently lose is the sky high prices.

On our first pass, we were told we couldn't sit at the bar because all the seats there were reserved. On our second try a few weeks later, we got seats near the giant windows, which must have spooked our waitress because she rarely came to see us after taking our order. A pre-dinner martini was watery. A salad with roasted beets and pears was skimpy. A baked goat cheese salad was bland and dull. A strange fish related to tilapia was overcooked.

I've been to the downtown Sel de la Terre more than a dozen a times and been impressed without fail on every visit. In Natick, not so much.

(rating as a coffee shop)

Although Lincoln St Cafe in Newton gets a lot of attention this newcomer has the flat-out best coffee cafe hang-out space in the greater Needham-Newton-Wellesley-Dedham area that I've seen. Big, comfy leather couches, free wifi, huge space, airy and light and located right in Dedham center where parking is no big deal. Coffee was very good though a piece of coffee cake was ordinary at best. Improving the bakes goods won't be hard. I'll be back.

p.s. I can't imagine the video rental concept has much future but who knows...

On a lazy Sunday morning, we strolled into Stella's (a party of five including our 4-year-old daughter) and seated ourselves at a big round table. Thus commenced the debate which would define the day's brunch: which lady behind the counter, if any, was Stella?

Was it the lady taking orders and barking commands to a stream of teenage-ish girls who seemed to communicate directly with the kitchen in back? Or was it the less seen darker-haired figure who occasionally presented herself at the cash register? Regardless -- and we never quite solved the mystery -- Stella's is a hidden gem of Newburyport, itself a hidden gem of the Massachusetts coast, at least according to the New York Times (see http://travel.nytimes....).

Order up front off a blackboard behind the counter from a wide array of breakfast and lunch-y type dishes then return to your table and be seated. Coffee will be immediately forthcoming, hot and fresh, and your bottomless cup will never hit bottom thanks to excellent service. We tried blueberry pancakes, waffles with fresh fruit and a really great veggie frittata. Things arrived from the kitchen a little bit slowly but everything was super delicious and worth the wait.

So if you're looking for an excellent, low-cost, friendly and informal breakfast and you're already off the beaten path in Newburyport, get a little more off the path and eat at Stella's.

I've been swooning for weeks over the box of assorted Aroa chocolates I got from my wife for my birthday but this weekend we took a chocolate cooking class with chef and owner Alejandro Luna and we're into five star territory. The tall, soft-spoken Luna, who grew up in Venezuela and trained in Paris, is the real McCoy -- a talent, a character, a gentleman.

In the three hours we and four other couples spent in his kitchen, he shared recipes and techniques, stories of the business and his life and an incredible assortment of candies and treats. I kept feeling like I had somehow fallen into the set of Willie Wonka's chocolate factory as Luna explained why he had four machines that seem to do nothing but circulate zillions of gallons of chocolate through a miniature waterfall. Best in class were the chocolate chip cookies, some kind of orange liquor infused ganache-filled candies and incredible crispy-chewy macaroons.

p.s. I don't think carrot cake is the real test of a chocolate-focused pastry shop!

The Clever Monk is no more but it's been replaced by this joint which is just as funky and has very fine coffee and baked goods, along with sandwiches. On a sunny day, the outside tables across from the Charles River and the local library are the place to sit and watch the world go by.