A Sweet Life Indeed At Snohomish Cafe

Sweet Life Cafe, 1024 First Ave., Snohomish. 568-3554 Breakfast (counter service only), 9 a.m.-noon, Sat.-Sun. only. Coffee and pastries at those times Tue.-Fri. Lunch (counter service only), 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tue.-Sun. Dinner, 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m. Tue.-Sat. No smoking. Personal checks; no credit cards accepted at lunch. Beer, wine. Catering available.

Snohomish isn't known for its restaurants, but the 5-year-old Sweet Life Cafe - listed in the Northwest Best Places guidebook - is one of the most popular places in town. The cafe's chalkboard menu lists an imaginative offering of well-prepared and amply portioned entrees in an eclectic and relaxed coffeehouse atmosphere.

The dinner menu changes weekly but almost always features a bean dish, two pastas, up to two fish dishes (recently including tuna and halibut) and steak. Each entree comes with vegetables and soup or salad. In keeping with its emphasis on healthful and homemade food, the cafe roasts its own turkey and ham, uses few canned goods and serves only locally and organically grown vegetables.

Lunches always include two soups daily, a hot weekday special, salads, and sandwiches on five-grain bread from the Monroe bakery. Prices for most breakfasts and lunches top out at $5.25.

Breakfasts include fresh croissants, fruit, burritos, blintzes, oatmeal, bagels, homemade scones and muffins, and acclaimed sourdough waffles from a 100-year-old sourdough starter.

Recent entrees one night included Thai seafood stew ($10.95); linguini with seafood, fresh tomatoes and herbs ($10.95); vegetarian cabbage rolls ($7.95); black bean stew with chicken and shrimp ($9.95); teriyaki flank steak ($11.95); and Greek salad ($7.95).

`PART FRENZIED INSPIRATION'

The menu's creativity is no fluke. Manager Michelle Magidow laughed when asked on a Wednesday if the next week's menu was planned yet. "We look through our pantry to see what we have, consider what's available locally, then sit down with the cook to figure it out at the last minute on Sunday. The process is part frenzied inspiration and part desperation, but it always turns out well."

The result is undeniably successful. Tourists and locals crowd in for breakfasts and lunches, and dinners attract regulars from Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., Magidow said. The crowds make reservations highly advisable for weekend dinners.

The cafe's second-floor location, above antique shops in a brick building dating back to 1890, means its window seats offer prime people-watching views of the swarming tourists below. The split-level, U-shaped dining area, which wraps around the building's exterior, has no air-conditioning and was stuffy and hot in the warm evening, even with windows open.

Wood tables - some bare, some with floral print tablecloths under glass - feature almost uncomfortably hard straight-backed wooden chairs. A quiet alcove features inviting couches for true coffee-house relaxing, and the obligatory jazz plays over speakers. The brick walls are hung with paintings for sale and with other, more eclectic decorations, including plastic octopi and squid.

Our steamed-mussels appetizer ($4.75) was tender and hot, stuffed with slivers of carrots in a sauce with just the right amount of garlic. A finely whipped hummus appetizer ($3.25) was heavily dosed with garlic but nonetheless warm and tasty with the accompanying pita bread. The latter, good as it was, couldn't hold a candle to the outstanding and piping-hot sourdough bread, which was devoured quickly and appreciatively.

My roasted lamb chops ($13.95) were hot, tender and tasty in a delicious Dijon sauce. The impressive portion of five medium-size chops seemed bounteous until closer inspection revealed each leg was mostly fat; I was left hungry for more of the excellent meat.

A huge portion of grilled fresh Alaska salmon ($12.95) arrived moist and hot, covered with currants and a port sauce I thought was quite good but which my two companions - lifelong seafood lovers - found overpowering.

A big bowl of penne pasta with chicken, roasted garlic, butter and cream ($9.95) proved to be the evening's best value, with huge chunks of chicken and half-cloves of garlic. I enjoyed the pasta's combination of garlic, basil and parmesan, but a friend found the herbs indifferently applied.

A VEGETABLE LETDOWN

For all the cafe's careful emphasis on organically grown vegetables, our side dishes were disappointing. Each entree came with a bland - and cold - pedestrian pilaf of brown rice, carrots and celery. The ginger carrots were unremarkable, and our mixed zucchini, chard and onion was bitter and cold.

The cafe's desserts are delectable and famous. Cheesecakes - both New York and Kahlua - were good and firm, but paled in comparison with the incredible chocolate-decadence torte. (Be sure to have plenty of milk - the only antidote for such richness - on hand.) Guidebooks recommend the light and dark chocolate mousse, none of which, unfortunately, was left by the time of our 7 p.m. arrival.

Neighborhood Eats is a regular Thursday feature of the Seattle Times. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.