I visited Mitzi’s Table with two family members on a Sunday
morning in mid-May 2017. The restaurant does not accept reservations, and wait
times can be lengthy. (On the morning that we dined, some customers were being
quoted waits of more than one hour.) The café maintains a wait list, although they
will not seat your party until all members have arrived. Mitzi’s Table is open Wednesdays
through Sundays from early morning until mid-afternoon for
breakfast/brunch/lunch. You can use a credit card to pay for your meal, but the
café requests that you leave your gratuity in cash.
Mitzi’s Table is located in the Bethlehem Village Shoppes, a
small strip mall on Route 191 (also called Linden Street and the Bath Pike) just
a little past a larger strip mall (with Home Depot, Wal-Mart, TJ Maxx, and
Giant) and before the Bethlehem Josh Early Candies store. You can park in the
strip mall parking lot; on the busy Sunday that we visited, more than half of
the parking lot was occupied by Mitzi’s customers. The restaurant is operated
by a former caterer/community college food service instructor and her husband,
a chef who trained at Johnson and Wales; the restaurant is named for the
husband’s mother.
The interior of the café is adorable, with several focal
points. A row of red metal pendant lighting draws your eye to a counter at the rear
of the space, where a pass-through window offers a glimpse into the kitchen.
The counter seats two guests at low red barstools (with backs); it seems that a
few high bar stools may be available on other days/times of the week, but when
we visited, those stools were stacked in the corner. Shelves behind the counter
display antique food tins and various serveware. The counter holds two clear
bakery display cases, and a glass-front tabletop refrigerator offers bottled
drinks. Most customers sit at either a booth or a table; the chairs for the
tables are unexpected, with curved padded backs that match the coverings for
the booth seats. Robin’s-egg blue/green walls match the upholstery for the
chairs and booths, and framed tone-on-tone panels decorate the walls. A waiting
area for about four people sits just inside the front door; the remainder of the
customers wait outside on the covered sidewalk.
Mitzi’s Café offers upscale American cuisine from a
combination brunch menu that features both traditional breakfast items as well
as lunch items like sandwiches and salads. We ordered three entrees: traditional
eggs benedict (other Benedicts are available, including crab), a chili omelet
(many other omelettes are offered), and fish tacos, along with a side of black
sticky rice to share. (The menu listed the rice in the breakfast starter
section, but it was more like a warm fruity version of a rice pudding dessert.)
The menu is extensive, with both breakfast and lunch items available at all
times. Daily specials are written on a hanging roll of butcher paper by the
host stand, a novel spin on the typical daily specials written on a chalkboard.
Although she was pleasant, our waitress was not
knowledgeable about the entire menu, and she had not sampled several of the
items that we asked about. We also questioned one of the two hostesses, who
could not answer because it was her first day working there; however, she exhibited
thoughtfulness when she pitched in and offered coffee refills when guests grew
impatient. The enormous variety of selections seemed impossible for staff to
execute within acceptable time limits. After we were seated, we waited
approximately 15 minutes to place our order, then we waited approximately 60
minutes (that’s one HOUR) until our first dish arrived, another 5 minutes for
the second dish, and another 5 minutes for the third dish. (Reported times do
NOT include the time that we waited for our table, which was expected.) After
we finished eating, it took approximately 15 minutes to receive our bill, and
additional minutes to attempt to pay at the counter while the male owner
performed quadruple-duty by cooking, plating, expediting, and taking payments.
Perhaps another set of hands at busy times would alleviate the tremendous wait
times. In total, we spent over 2 hours at Mitzi’s for our breakfast meal, not
including the additional time that we waited for a table.
If the service were speedier, we would return, because the
café is cute and the menu is interesting, but 2+ hours for a casual breakfast
is excessive!
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