Cafe 109

Café 109 is one of the few places in the area of north OC and SELACO (southeast Los Angeles County) where you can get a good, decent cronut, or dossiant, as they call it here.
I made a special visit here a few weeks back to see what all the hype was about dossiants and found out that Café 109 had just recently opened in the area. Since I’m usually in the downtown Fullerton area often enough, I figured I would fit it in during one of my regular visits.
They apparently take a while to make, as the bakers can only make a limited number of them at a time. It costs about $ 5 for a piece, and I figured to go with the strawberry dossiant.
You can use a knife and fork to eat them, however, I found that the plastic forks and knives may not stand up well to the crispy dossiant, and I ended up breaking my utensils trying to eat one. It’s not like something you can simply pick up and eat like a regular donut either. They’re more layered with crispy dough, which reminded me of a churro (it contained some cinnamon). That would be one of my recommendations to the ownership: to consider proper silverware and ceramic plates for people who decide to enjoy the goods or drinks here (instead of «to go»).
Café 109 is located right in the heart of downtown Fullerton right along Harbor Boulevard, just north of Commonwealth Avenue. I realized that the idea to open a bakery right here was a great idea, since there was nothing like it in the downtown district. They clearly have the only product of its kind around and can easily grow off the business in the surrounding area (especially if they stay open late at night).
Knowing that 109 is right there, I’ll probably make more visits to it when I’m back in the area, especially if I’m looking for something more along the line of a sweet dessert item after a good night out.

Happened upon this place after studying at Layer Cake Bakery because it closed at 9pm on Sunday. My friends and I were walking over to Night Owl, but decided to check out Café 109 instead. I had this place bookmarked since it opened, but because of the reviews I felt iffy about this place. Nevertheless, we ventured in.
AND I LOVE THIS PLACE. It was quiet because everyone was studying, so it was a great atmosphere. The temperature was perfect — some places love to blast AC but not this place! Service was awesome — the coffee guy made some recommendations, and even offered to customize our drinks on the house.
Lots of tables around for studying, nice couches too.
Also a great place to hang out with friends. They have some fun group board games like Taboo and such.
Plus all profits that they make go to local charities!
I’ll be back!

Neat place — definitely fits in with the non-​chainy feel of downtown Fullerton. Feels very much like a café or coffee shop where you are grabbing a bite while studying, doing stuff on your laptop, writing music, etc.
Food is the usual you would expect from a café, nothing mind-​blowing. Had their Asian marinated chicken salad — it was good. Great presentation of the salad — looks very artful (see my photo.) I also tried their droissant (blueberry), which was VERY GOOD! It indeed had flaky layers inside with blueberry flavor, but very much like a donut on the outside. I tried a day-​old one so I could get it half-​price, because these treats are $ 4 – 4.50 each! Definitely a must try (maybe with coffee) if you stop in.
Staff is friendly and knowledgeable about all menu items, especially their coffee. Their Wi-​Fi password is displayed at their register, so be prepared to jot it down once you order, if you plan to surf the net while there.
They have patio seating in the back, but it is not covered, so be advised (it rained when we visited.) However, there are two entrances/​exits to this eatery — one is closer to parking lot, while the other is along Harbor Blvd.

Great prices for their coffee. Very affordable for college students, and entering the door, it felt like a small university village.
Had the café au lait for $ 2.00. The mug is like the big café mugs you can get any other cafes. The milk wasn’t frothed to its max so there wasn’t any foam. I like my foam a bit, so that was a bit of a downer. The drink was smooth and light though. It’s more milky than coffee-​based. I would recommend to even out the portion to be more coffee-​based.
There was live music, which was nice to have. Very relaxed atmosphere.

Its a new experience with a croissant– donut hybrid– the cronut. Tried the lemon vanilla and the nutella banana, like the lemon vanilla… not so much on the nutella. Which is extremely odd for me with my crazy love for nutella.
The lemon one has a great layered texture of the croissant but slightly denser like the donut. Pretty interesting, but definitely need someone to split one.
But the nutella just taste like churros with choclate paste… very sweet and just taste like regular donut. Not worth spending calories on.

So of course I came in here to try their cronut, ahem, doissant. But I have to say that it was really disappointing. Maybe it was because I came too late in the day — past 5:30 pm, I believe — but I found it kind of heavy, dense, and very greasy. It was like eating a slab of fried butter. In the end, I could only eat a little more than half before tossing out the rest. The lemon vanilla filling was nice though, and I probably could have used more of it.
I also got a cold brewed coffee, which I enjoyed very much. It was bright and refreshing and helped to wash the grease out of my mouth. But the modest 4 oz. serving was presented in an embarrassingly large 12 oz. container, which gave me the uneasy impression that I was somehow being gypped. And I really dislike feeling gypped.
Not worth the $ 9 and change I paid for the experience.

In my book, three stars is good. It means, hey, this is a decent place that I’ll probably stop by in the future one day. I certainly won’t go out of my way to come but if I’m in the area and I want some coffee then, yeah, i’ll stop by.
This place makes good coffee. Their cold drip is the strong, delicious kick I need on a hot day.
Their garlic fries are average. I’ve had better…
Their cronut? erm… I won’t be ordering it again. I don’t see the hype. Some people complain about the size but I’m complaining about the flavor. Listen, if it was small but mouth watering delicious I’d be all over this. But they don’t taste good, guys. They taste… like donuts… expensive… small… at best, average cream filled donuts.
This place is worth a try for everything except the cronut.

Went during the soft opening (day 2) to get my hand on some doissants (aka cronuts). Definitely a bit expensive — I think $ 8 each? And since they were making them from scratch, there was only one flavor available every 30 minutes or so. I got the banana nutella one and my mom and sister got a strawberry lemon something one along with a couple of iced coffees.
Both flavors were really good and surprisingly light — I expected them to be more dense for some reason. The strawberry one was much better — I think these need to be eaten immediately out of the oven. The service was really excellent. We were warned that we would have to wait for 15 minutes for the second flavor but it ended up taking a bit longer. The owner/​manager apologized for the wait and gave us coupons for free drinks for the next time around — how nice!
The coffees were both delicious as well. Loved the ambiance — it looks almost a bit like a warehouse so it’s pretty spacious and airy. Lots of games in the corner for people that are interested in staying awhile. I imagine this place is going to get super popular once people start discovering it. And I’ll be back next time I want to grab a quick coffee in Fullerton.

This place is going to do just fine.
They are definitely having those «we just opened» issues.
The gal at the front didn’t know where anything was, then the guy charged me the wrong price for my two coffees
the food took a long time
the gal looked shocked that there was no half n half out…
But like I said I think this place is going to be great.
My GF thought the FRitatta was too salty, but I loved it. The bacon was yummy too!

Café 109 opened its doors to the public for the first time today and based on what I’ve gathered so far on this new Downtown Fullerton resident, I can’t wait to check it out!!!
–Over 40 DIFFERENT SPECIALTY SODAS including Mexican Cola, Bubble Up, Dublin Retro Grape, Virgil’s Cream Soda, and more!
–Try the KYOTO COLD DRIP COFFEE for an extreme caffeine experience!
–Fullerton’s very own CRONUT aka «Doissant»! This looks so much better than even the original and the other fake cronuts around SoCal!!!
–All food items are USDA ORGANIC and NON GMO!
–Plenty of tables, sofas, and outlets throughout the store so you can do your work and catch-​up with friends… or both at the same time!
–Profits from Café 109 will be used to support LOCAL CHARITIES!
In addition to local charities, I read that Café 109’s ultimate goal is to fund a school in Nepal that rescues trafficked girls. Not only do you fill up with coffee and pastries but you feel good knowing that your money is going to a cause larger than yourself!!!

I was super excited to be able to finally try a croissant-​donut without going all the way to LA.
They have 2 flavors: Strawberry and Nutella/​Banana. The strawberry is Meh. All the employees said that the Nutella/​Banana is the more popular one by far. The texture of their dossant was really good. Flaky, crunchy, yet soft. BUT, it was tiny and expensive! $ 5 for one of these suckers.
I ordered a scoop of vanilla ice cream to go with the dossants. A la mode anything is better am I right?! Plus with a cup of their Americano. Their Americano was really smooth. Not too light but not too bold.
This place has so much potential. They should have more flavored dossants! Perhaps blueberry, custard, custard and fresh strawberries! YUM! Also, they should serve them warm a la mode. As for the interior, they should display local artists’ works or do a collage type of deco. It’d go well with their high industrial ceilings.
I’m glad I got to try their dossant. But I’m not sure if I’d be going back any time soon to drop $ 5 on 3 bites of average pastries.