Housed in a space that formerly hosted a dry cleaner (hence the name), the centerpiece of Same Day Cafe’s menu is the grilled cheese, served on thick rosemary bread—it's accompanied by a cup of rich tomato soup. A soda fountain offers a variety of sodas concoctions, like a lemon lavender phosphate and On the Beach, a blend of grapefruit, jalapeno and lime. For something even more decadent opt for a shake, malt or ice cream sundae.
Impressions by Amy Cavanaugh, 2015
If you miss Flipside Café, the winter pop-up in the Miko’s Italian Ice Bucktown space from 2010-2013, you’re in luck—owners Will von Hartz and Dennis Waldvogel are back with a new spot, Same Day Café.
Some dishes, like the grilled cheese, carried over, and now the spot will be open year-round. Located on the same block as Longman & Eagle and Reno, the café is bright and airy, with light woods, bar seats and a handful of patio tables.
“I picked the space for its prime location and modest size—around 1,000 square feet,” von Hartz says. “It was an operating dry cleaners (off-site cleaning) when I bought it in August of 2014 from the couple that ran the shop. They left everything but the garments and retired to California. It took about eight months of work to convert it into a restaurant. Dennis and I did a lot of the work ourselves.”
Same Day opened in early May with Chris Colson turning out simple but great dishes, like grilled ham and cheese, with housemade dill mustard and thick rosemary bread; a petite, flavor-packed chicken pot pie; and an arugula salad, tossed with pickled shallots and shaved Parmesan. Daily specials and baked goods round out the food menu.
For drinks, there’s Ipsento coffee, and the soda fountain is making sodas, like a spicy ginger and a tart Michigan cherry, egg creams, phosphates and lactarts.
“We make all of the syrups in house,” von Hartz says. “We also keep Fox's U-Bet chocolate syrup on hand in case someone insists on it for their chocolate egg cream. That's a Brooklyn thing.”