Light lunch
Don’t expect big portions or cheap food at Scallions.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Scallions is a quiet little downstairs lunch spot in The Heights where diners can feed themselves and, if they like, the birds. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, the majority of diners opted to enjoy the weather and have lunch on the patio.
The customer profile seemed to be mixed between medical professionals in scrubs and women of all ages. And the patio featured a surprising lack of men — the ones present seemed to be either husbands or sons. Scanning the parking lo, we noticed a row of shiny cars ranging from Jaguar to BMW to Mercedes, but, of course, we couldn’t attribute all of these to Scallions customers.
People and plants provided the only splash of color on the patio with the prevailing shade — from the umbrellas down to the rock ground cover — being brown.
Even the off-white menus, with peeling lamination stemming from a life outdoors, featured large swaths of aged and browning spots.
Being open only for lunch, the Christmas lights strung on the fence, a tree and along the edges of the patio would never have the chance to glow on evening diners at Scallions.
Though one waitress did tell me they turn them on at night and around Christmas.
But, enough of this talk about decor. On to the food.
With selections ranging from soup to salad to sandwiches, Scallions is naturally more of a light lunch place.
Big eaters and pregnant women might want to have a pre-lunch snack, lest they be hungry again in about three hours. We think this could explain the dearth of men on the patio.
The restaurant serves no appetizers and no sweet tea. We also weren’t given straws, and probably could have asked for them, but didn’t. No one else seemed to need them.
When ordering, I settled on the sandwich combo plate with a bowl of soup, half a sandwich and salad — all of which I was surprised to see could fit on one plate complete with a crisp, white paper doily — for $8.50.
Does that sound too expensive?
You and your wallet should decide that for yourself, but I’ve made my decision. Our lunch arrived quickly, and I felt compelled to note the lack of scallions in anything we ordered. You would think they’d be the perfect topper for our orders of black bean or cheese soup.
Though the dessert menu was tempting with items like cheesecake, carrot cake, bread pudding and something called Baked Fudge Supreme, we didn’t order any post-lunch treats.
Our waitress brought the ticket without asking about dessert, too.
After speaking with a few regulars, none of whom had ever ordered dessert, we decided the cheesecake and its friends were probably the most overlooked thing on the Scallions menu.
Maybe no one, except me, wants cheesecake weighing them down after a lunch of salad and soup. Regular Scallions diner Linda Pledger, 58, agrees.
“I don’t think people have dessert for lunch much,” she said.
Pledger was working on a “huge” Sausalito Salad with lemon yogurt dressing and said one of her favorite things about Scallions is the raspberry tea.
“I always get water for lunch when I eat out, except for here.”
Her dining companion, 31-year-old Melissa Johnston, said she likes Scallions for “the freshness of the food and the option of indoor or outdoor seating,” she said.
At a table nearby, also enjoying the patio but never dessert, was Tara Freyaldenhoven, 35, who eats at Scallions two or three times a month.
She lives nearby and brought a business associate from out of town to lunch.
She has ordered the Sampler Platter with chicken salad and always gets the cheese soup — the only constant soup on the menu, she said.
She keeps returning to Scallions for the patio and the service.
“The waitresses are nice,” she said. “They’ll remember you.”
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