Euro Cafe

Restaurant:  Euro Cafe
Location:  546 E. Baseline, Claremont, CA 91711
Like/Don't Like:  LOVED!  So good. 

I'm sure everyone in Claremont already knows about this place as Claremontians have the tendency to know everything about everything.  So I'm not sure if I should be a little miffed that my Claremont friends have never mentioned it.  Whatever, they can make it up to me by meeting me at Bert & Rocky's and buying me ice cream.

Anyway, this place is great. It's billed as Portuguese/Italian so there's a lot of pasta and panini and linguica.  The Restaurant Club met up and order a bunch of different things and sampled each other's dishes and everything tasted amazing and very fresh.  The cheese on the sandwiches tasted like it was made that day.  All the meat was super tender and the pastries were excellent. 

The best part was that when we walked in I happened to mention to someone that it was our first time and right as we were sitting down this little old Portuguese man came over and started chatting with us.  He was the owner, Joey, and kept stopping by, first with a complimentary appetizer of house-made linguica (delicious) and garlic bread.  And then he would stop over to see how the food was.  He complimented Heather on her choice of Bife a Portuguesa and decided that she needed a glass of wine to go with it so brought one out to her.  And then for me for finding the place.  We didn't have the heart to tell him none of us drank.  But you know it's a good place when they bring you free food and wine just for giving them a try.  On his last stop Joey brought us business cards and showed us a CD he made of him sing Portuguese songs and told us that on the last Saturday of the month he puts on a show there. Dinner and a show?  Best place ever.