Offbeat diners offer quality, value
Mar-Shel Cafe
Everything from low prices to
friendly service give the Mar-Shel
Cafe, 125 S. 27th St., the look and
taste of a Nebraska small-town cafe.
Bill and Leola Duffy, who bought
the cafe nearly five years ago, open
their small, but cozy, cale every
weekday morning at 5 and close at
2 p.m.
Since this would be one of my
first dining experiences at a restau
rant in Lincoln that didn’t require
customers to pay for their food
before eating it, I was a little nerv
ous about wnat to expect.
But any fears I haa quickly dis
appeared when I stepped into the
cafe and was reminded of the
atmosphere of a favorite cafe I used
to frequent in my hometown of
West Point.
As soon as I sat down at the
counter, Leola greeted me and a
friend, who volunteered to accom
pany me on this 6 a.m. experience.
Despite the hour, Leola was
smiling when she handed us our
menus.
After looking at the menu, I
thought for sure I must have been
back home because almost every
breakfast item was under $4.
Mar-Shel’s offers a good variety
of breakfast meals, ranging from
steak and eggs to cold cereal. I
chose my favorite breakfast entree,
coffee and a Western omelet. My
friend settled for hot tea, French
toast and an egg.
While we waited for our food to
arrive, Leola brought us the morn
ing paper. My friend read the comics
and I looked around and noticed
only one other customer. Again, I
began to wonder what I might
have gotten myself into.
About 10 minutes later, Leola
returned with our food. 1 knew
after 1 took the first bite of my
omelet that the reason more cus
tomers weren’t there was because
of the lime, not the food.
My omelet was better than any I
have ever made, even though it
didn’t have mushrooms. Unlike my
omelets, there weren’t any black
spots, and it came in one piece. It
contained diced ham, plenty of
cheese and just enough onion to
give it bite.
The Western omelet is served
with a generous portion of crispy
hash browns, jelly and four slices
of toast. The toast was perfect, not
overly brown and lightly buttered.
My friend said her meal was
“above average." The French toast
was crispy outside, while still re
taining its soft homemade-bread
texture on the inside. Her egg,
which she ordered over-easy, was
not greasy with a soft yolk.
After we finished our meal, Leola
refilled my coffee cup for the third
time. By now, the cafe was begin
ning to fill with construction work
ers, garbage collectors and other
blue-collar laborers.
Had a few farmers been present,
I might have thought
I was back in
West Point.
- Jerry Guenther
Dixon’s Cafe
Located on the less-gentrified
frontiers of theHaymarket, Dixon’s
Cafe, 707 L St., has been serving
Lincoln’s blue-collar crowd since
1972.
It’s a cozy place that makes good
use of the small interior, with booths
close enough together to hear every
conversation going.
And boy do these folks talk.
Machines, fishing and bitching about
the boss seem to be the order of the
day. These topics are covered with
all the fervor of two professors
going over the fine points of one
theory or another.
Things really get interesting when
the conversations get confused as
one listens, stringing together a
few phrases from each of the sur
rounding tables.
The waitresses here are amaz
ing, descending as soon as one
enters and bringing food literally
hot off the grill. While doing this,
they manage to follow every con
versation in the place and trade
jibes with the familiar customers.
The breakfast menu is pretty
heavy on the standard eggs, toast
and meat permutations. I opted for
a stack of pancakes.
“I need a stack,” the waitress
yelled back.
“A stack of what?”
“A stack of pancakes.”
See DIXONonS
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