A Hidden Gem

The fact that the place I'm writing about today escaped me is incredible. I was aware of the presence of the J Cafe in downtown Westminster, MD, but I had no idea that this place opened based on their love of cupcakes, then expanded into a sit-down restaurant offering breakfast and lunch. 

I was driving down Main Street the other day and saw the cafe in my peripheral vision. I'm always looking for good, low cost places to eat so when I got home I looked them up online. That's when I realized that all this time I had thought I could only get gourmet cupcakes at one place in town. Of course I had to try this place as soon as possible. 

Located in an old Victorian house at the intersection of Main Street and Center Street, the cafe has plenty of metered street parking. It's also not far from the city parking lots. The reason why I had never really thought much of it is it's not the kind of place that draws a whole lot of attention to itself. It has a very small sign and is easy to miss. 

When you enter the cafe you are immediately greeted by the cupcake display case and fairly friendly staff. Flavors of the day are listed on the wall on a chalkboard, but the cashier offered to point each one out to me. There were about 10 cupcakes to choose from and I chose cherry vanilla, sweet potato, and Andes mint. 

I loved the presentation of these cupcakes, with simple garnishes and frosting that made you want to take a huge bite.

The cake on all of these cupcakes was super moist and the perfect amount without becoming too dense. The cherry vanilla had a maraschino cherry baked in the center, a fun surprise. The cherry flavor was pretty prominent, almost to the point where it was a little difficult to taste the vanilla. It didn't make it a bad cupcake though, just maybe more of a cherry cupcake than vanilla. 

Justin thought the sweet potato cupcakes tasted like fall and a pumpkin roll, some of our favorite things. I also got a hint of zucchini bread when just eating the cake. The cake was a spice cake with cream cheese frosting and just delicious. We'll definitely want more of these once the weather turns cooler. 

The Andes mint had a mint chocolate chip buttercream frosting on top of a chocolate cake. This made me feel like I was eating an ice cream cone and was very yummy. I loved these cupcakes and am excited to try more from this place! 

I went to the cafe right at lunch time and hadn't planned on ordering anything else but another chalkboard caught my eye advertising their quiche of the day, crab and asparagus. Now I love crab and I love asparagus so I made an impulse decision to also order lunch to go. As far as impulse decisions go, this was a great one. 

A lot of people don't like quiche because of the texture, but I love it. This one was loaded with the crab and asparagus, plus several different cheeses. The top of the quiche was a beautiful golden brown, and the pie crust was soft and flaky. The quiche is served with their house salad of mixed greens, diced green and red peppers, red onion, tomato, homemade croutons, cheddar jack cheeses, and balsamic vinaigrette. This whole plate was gone in less than 30 minutes and I can't wait to go back!