Upper Crust Bakery & Café

ABF & I were visiting my dad and stepmom in Florida, and they took us on a tour of downtown Venice on our first full day there. After stopping at the beach, where the gorgeous blue sky was almost too pretty to be believed, we stopped in for lunch at a place they'd meant to try for a while, Upper Crust Bakery and Café. They had pretty little seats and tables outside, but it was 200 percent humidity and ABF & I were melting, so, um, NO. Inside we went!

The decor is sort of mixed--very high, industrial-looking ceilings, beat-up floor, but kitschy little pieces on the walls along with ornate lighting fixtures. It was a bright, airy space, and seemed quite packed while we were there.

I ordered the meat-lovers' quiche (ham, bacon, and sausage oh yeah), which came with a side salad and a fresh mini-croissant. Holy moley..that's a lotta food, and I darn near ate all of it. The quiche was a SUPER-sized portion, so thankfully ABF helped me out with that. I devoured the salad, every bite of it (except the radicchio--why are you looking at me like that?), used only a drop of two of the wonderful vinaigrette, and the croissant did not last long on my plate. It was dreeeeenched in butter, but I ate it anyway. I would actually rather NOT have the melted butter on top, and if I went back, I'd request they leave out that step.

ABF has been on a bit of an onion ring kick lately--these were pretty good. Better than the ones we had at Pat LaFrieda's outpost at LaGuardia airport (post coming soon!) He also got the chicken club type sandwich--it was delicious, and it was a whole huge chicken breast in there!

We were stuuuuffed from lunch, and there was no room for dessert. The display is pretty basic and didn't photograph well, but I heard people saying good things (ganache-covered brownies? Holy chocoholic!) about the sweets and treats. I will have to ask Dad & Bobbie to do some 'research' for me and send an update!

Upper Crust Organic Cafe & Bakery

213 W Venice Ave

Venice, FL 34285

(941) 244-0430