 Muddy's Coffeehouse IMAGE: LEAHNASH.COM |
Granted, there's no shortage of culinary choices these days on North Mississippi Avenue, but this coffeehouse's eccentric atmosphere and super-friendly staff make it seem more like a friend's living room than a restaurant—and considering that owner Dyer Price lives upstairs, perhaps that's what it is.
The menu is basic: breakfast fare and sandwiches with some sort of twist, like the mouthwatering tuna melt packed with capers, red onion, apples and mustard ($5.75). A sweet-salty grilled-tofu sammy ($6.50) covered in a heap of cheese, tomato and avocado arrives on a plate that might have been stolen from your grandmother's cupboard, and the cozy orange room is filled with large, clunky tables that often force you to sip Muddy's Portland Roasting coffee ($1) and über-rich Mexican hot chocolate ($2) elbow-to-elbow with your fellow patrons.
But the quirkiness is part of its charm—this isn't a place that's trying to be fancy, that's why it works so well. Muddy's serves great food cheaply without an ounce of pretense, a constant reminder of that phrase my mother used to throw in my face when I would agonize over the difficulty of writing a fifth-grade book report: Keep it simple, stupid.
Muddy's Coffeehouse, 3560 N Mississippi Ave., 445-6690. 7 am-6 pm Monday-Saturday, 7 am-3 pm Sunday. $ Inexpensive.
