Cafe Joley

long closed

I had brunch here on Easter Sunday, with my family who live in the area. They’d all been to Café Joley, but it was a first for me. I was very excited about getting French food (especially because we used to do Easter brunch at Mon Ami before it closed).
We started with the pâté and escargot appetizers — how much more French could we get? They were both delicious, and the bread served with both (and just on the table in general) was delish. For my main dish, I had the mussels provencal (moules en francais), which were very good. The mussels came with «Joley fries» which were truffled and served in a mini flower pot — an ingenious idea for some very tasty potatoes. The portion was very small (especially considering the usual side of frites with an order of moules), but it was delish nonetheless. A couple people at our table got brunch dishes, and my cousin said the eggs benedict were fabulous.
At noon we wanted to order bloody marys (thanks Boca and your weird «alcohol on Sundays» restrictions), but we were told by our waiter that we now had to wait until 1pm. We knew we were right, and he ended up calling his manager to check it out. The manager said it was in fact 1pm, but to give us the drinks anyway, so that was pretty cool.
The service was pretty slow, especially after we’d already ordered, but needed more bread or additional drinks — so be warned. It seemed like every time we asked for something, they hopped the Concorde to Paris to go pick it up.
The reason I only gave Café Joley 3 stars is because, while my mussels were delicious when I was eating them, they did not sit well in my stomach, and I felt nauseous for most of the rest of the day. I can’t say for sure if my mussels were bad (though my cousin got the exact same dish as me, and was fine), or if it was just me, but I had to throw that out there. But don’t let that stop you from dining here. I’ll probably be back — I’ll just stay away from the mussels.