City Line Cafe, 205 E. City Hall Ave.

If Laine and I are looking for something quick, or looking for a short walk if the weather is bad, we often head over to City Line Cafe. City Line offers soups, salads and sandwiches. My favorite trait of City Line is the BYO - Build Your Own. They allow you to build your own salad or sandwich. There are various types of lettuce (including spinach - in case you dine with Popeye!) and pretty much any topping you can imagine. While I am NOT a DIY (do it yourself) person at all, being able to customize my food is pretty important. I am one of the world's pickiest eaters. My mother likes to tell my friends that I am a 'weird eater'. Whatever, it is my food and I want it like I want it. Back to City Line, our food is always ready quickly and has been 'solid' in the past.
I must add our last experience to the review in fairness. In sum, City Line was 'off its game' last Friday. Laine and I both 'built our own' salads, as usual, and ordered water (I'm trying to stay off the sauce...iced tea because of the huge amounts of Sweet n' Low I use - apparently it is bad for the kidneys. Who'da thunk?). Well, the cashier gave us a cup (a small one - I've seen larger shot glasses) and we headed to the drink fountain...NO water...and NO ice to boot. Laine and I went back to the counter and stood there for a good 5 minutes and made faces at each other before we just became fed up and asked her where the water was. She looked a little lost and then gave us water...from the TAP! Come on people; get some water in your drink fountain. Don't they all have that these days? Oh, and ice, of course. Our food was still fast and was still good, but the water thing sent me on a short trip to the moon. Luckily, I came back...this time.

~Alex

I always try to support the ‘little man” with my dollar. I feel like I am supporting the American Dream when I do that. Not that I am “anti” chain restaurants or businesses, but you simply don’t get the same warm, fuzzy feeling as you do upon walking into a place where you know the folks that work there and they know you. Keeping that in mind, I must admit that I tend to give City Line some leeway in situations where I would stomp on a larger competitor.

On the upside, the food is consistently fresh, and well prepared with generous portions. When you order grilled chicken for your salad, they freshly cook an entire boneless chicken breast for you. It is still warm when it hits the salad. It is not a precooked and previously frozen slab of chicken. They have homemade potato chips with a variety of spices that I have been told are delicious. I have sampled a couple and completely concur. On the downside, City Line seems to be struggling with some new business growing pains. Staffing is a problem. You just can’t operate a lunch joint in downtown with only two people during the peak hours. And I really like these two people too. They are busting it out with one on the register and the other cooking, but it is like swimming upstream against the current. Sometimes it can take 20 minutes to get your order. That is pushing the limits of the average consumer’s patience. The water incident was funny at first, but when the end result was a Dixie sized cup of warm tap water, the humor faded. A lot of people want water with their meals, why punish them?

So, in the spirit of entrepreneurialship and a killer build your own salad (I am getting addicted to the artichoke hearts and avocado), I’ll keep going to City Line. For the future success of the business I hope they work on hiring some midday support for my kitchen buddies and invest in upgrading their soda machine with a water dispenser.

_Laine

Visit City Line online, or in person Monday-Friday 11AM-3PM