A Not So Uplifting Experience ( A Cafe Lift Review)

July 27th, 2022

Authored by Nina Wilson and Dynisha Murray

Pictured above Avocado Toast ($15), Spring Frittata ($14), and Cannoli French Toast ($15). Photo Courtesy of the Brunch Besties.

Picture this. You’re 22 and decide to open a restaurant, with your high school sweetheart who eventually becomes not just your business partner but your partner in life. You move out of the city at some point, and have children but still continue to work on creating a restaurant collective, opening and closing additional restaurants over the years. Roughly 20 years later, you’ve managed to open four restaurants in the same city, with another restaurant location pending. However amongst these 20 years, you’ve had successes, as well as failures. Three defunct restaurants ,to be exact, and one restaurant opening that never came to be. This is the story of Michael Pasquarello, who is the owner of the Cafe Lift. 

As I previously stated, he and his wife Jeniphur Pasquerello own and manage 13th street kitchens, which is a restaurant collective comprised of Cafe Lift, Prohibition Taproom, Kensington Quarters, and La Chinesca. Michael and Jeniphur, opened Cafe Lift in 2003 to provide a need to the area. Over time the restaurant grew in popularity so much so,  they tentatively were looking to open an additional location in Montgomery county back in 2018, (Biz Journals). However, that seemed to fall through. They also opened three other restaurants over the course of time, those being KQ Burgers, Bufad (Philly Voice), and Buckmeisters (Philly Mag) all of which are now permanently closed. At present there seems to be an additional location of Cafe Lift in Haddonfield in the works (Njpen). 

We visited Cafe Lift on June 4th, 2022. We got there shortly before 1 pm, on a bright but humid day. We did not have reservations, because seating is on a first come first serve basis. We were seated pretty quickly after arrival, maybe less than 10 minutes. The restaurant had an industrial design to it. Lots of exposed brick, cement floors and walls, as well as distressed wood and exposed pipes. The tables themselves were sealed plywood with metal seats. It was rather crowded and there was no AC within the space, however it wasn’t terribly hot inside. It was rather noisy due to how crowded it was, but that’s to be expected. There was a semi-open kitchen,  as well as a cafe bar towards the back end of the restaurant. Overall the vibes and service were nothing to write home about. Once we settled into our seats, looked over the menu, and selected the dishes we desired, we put in our orders. 

We ordered 3 dishes and two drinks. We both got the Forever Cold Brew with oat milk ($3.50), and also ordered the Avocado Toast ($15), Spring Frittata ($14), and Cannoli French Toast ($15). Quick side note about the cold brew, it does not come sweetened and you do have a choice of milk, so just keep that in mind if you do decide to order it.  Let’s hop into our review of each dish. 

Avocado Toast

Avocado Toast ($15), Pictured above. Photo Courtesy of The Brunch Besties.

Through this blog, we’ve come across a lot of avocado toast. This is probably the first one that we tried that had asparagus on it. The menu described this dish as “ toasted sourdough, smashed avocado, blistered cherry tomatoes, asparagus, poached eggs, espelette, and olive oil drizzle.”

The presentation was clean and nice. The toast had a nice crunchy texture, the eggs were perfectly poached, the avocado was fresh, along with the other vegetables that accompanied the plate. It could have used a bit more seasoning. I personally was not crazy about the asparagus and the blistered tomatoes. However, for someone who has a preference for veggies, or are vegetarians I could see them enjoying the dish. The side salad that accompanied the toast was insignificant. We felt that it could have been livened up if the dressing had been tossed in. Other than that, It just met the bare minimum of being a decent dish. Thus why we rated it 2.5 stars out of 5.

Spring Frittata

Spring Frittata ($14), Pictured above. Photo Courtesy of The Brunch Besties.

Next item that we sampled was the Spring Frittata. The menu described this item as “ spinach, fava beans, spring peas, smoked mozzarella, and basil pesto.” The presentation was again clean and decent. The vegetables were fresh, the basil pesto and mozzarella married together well, the side of potatoes was well seasoned, and everything was proportional. I believe the frittata was a bit bland and was not crazy about the texture of the fava beans combined with the rest of the frittata. However overall, the dish was light and tasty which is what both myself and Dynisha liked about it. Therefore we scored this dish 3 out of 5 stars.

Cannoli French Toast

Cannoli French Toast ($15), Pictured above. Photo Courtesy of The Brunch Besties.

This was the final dish up to bat, that came with much anticipation. The menu described this dish as “Philly’s First! Our classic baked cinnamon & vanilla custard soaked brioche with ricotta cannoli filling, with bananas, chipped chocolate, and pistachios.” Just as a warning this sounds better than it actually tasted. The presentation was again nice and ran into the overarching theme of clean plating, which we liked. However, the brioche was over battered and dry, the bananas were not ripe, the pistachios, and bananas could have been left out all together. It just felt like a circus of different ingredients jumping around on a desiccate piece of bread. Neither of us were impressed by it, and rated it 1 out of 5 stars. It definitely had potential to be a good dish, even a great dish, but just missed the mark.

Closing Remarks…

When we visit these restaurants, We genuinely want to give them good reviews. Our expectations are not set high, because we understand the complexity of opening a restaurant and running it. It’s especially upsetting to leave negative reviews after completing research on the owners, because you learn about their triumphs and their struggles, which are all not just extremely complex and difficult, but also just tie into being human and chasing a passion. But by the end of the day, we have to be honest about our experiences. That being said, our total score of this place is 2 out of 5 stars. I have a lot more to say about how I feel about the current state of the restaurant scene in Philly post- pandemic, but I'll save that for another time.

Until Next Time,

XOXO

The Brunch Besties