Business Spotlight: Bleu Café offers tastes from Europe to Bourbon Street
Submitted by Brett Fisher on Mon, 02/08/2016 - 8:37am
When you first set foot inside the doors of Bleu Café at 240 E. Winnie Lane in Carson City, the ambiance is reminiscent of a café from the streets of Old World Europe.
The atmosphere is light, airy and spacious. Tables and chairs are arranged around the 1,500 square-foot dining area to resemble seating at an outdoor café in famous Old World destinations like Paris or Rome.
Even the polished stone breakfast bar and dark wood hutch behind it have Old World charms to them.
“European cafés have a lot in common,” said Bleu Café owner Roberta Davies. “It’s a comfortable and eclectic sort of style, and I wanted to bring that feeling here.”
But as attractive as the aesthetics are at Bleu Café, the big draw is, of course, the food.
Davies describes her menu as continental food.
“It’s from Europe to Bourbon Street (in New Orleans),” she said.
Davies and her husband are avid world travelers, she said, and they visit Europe often. In fact, it is the source of inspiration behind her restaurant’s menu.
“It’s why I chose this cuisine,” she said.
Davies has 30 years of experience in the food industry, including time spent working for high-end caterers in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Bleu Café is the first restaurant Davies has owned.
She and her sister, Karey Domen, went into business together to open Bleu Café in June 2015. It was the realization of a dream the two had shared for the past 20 years.
Domen, the restaurant’s general manager and in charge of front room operations, has resided in Carson City since 1979.
Roberta, who supervises the kitchen and inspects every dish made there, had lived in Carson City briefly before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area and also residing in Sacramento for a time. She then returned to the Nevada state capital in 2014.
Davies says Bleu Café prides itself on using real ingredients that are not processed. This includes the butter, she adds with a laugh, noting her restaurant’s motto, “If it tastes like butter…it is butter.”
Davies also insists on using fresh, seasonal produce, which is why Bleu Café has a seasonal menu, a practice consistent with European eateries, she said.
“If the food’s not good, we don’t buy it,” Davis said. “It’ all about what’s new now.”
There are, however, menu items that have grown quite popular with patrons.
These include quiche Florentine, Hungarian goulash, three different kinds of eggs benedict, French onion soup, and blueberry coffee cakes.
At Bleu Café, you can sample Europe’s menu without having to travel there.
“You can get sauerbraten, eggs benedict, and a cheeseburger,” Domen says with a laugh. “We make things to order.”
Food quality is priority number one for Davies.
“It’s what I would be serving if I was in my house,” she said.
This is also consistent with restaurants in Old World Europe. Davies said families share their recipes, and their food, with others.
That is what Davies and Domen are doing for their patrons at Bleu Café.
The coffee cake, by the way, is the bomb … to use a New World expression.
Bleu Café is open for lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is also open for dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. And, it is open for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
