I went on the best date recently. We met at my place and walked down the street to <a href="http://www.cafebesalu.com/" target="_blank">Cafe Besalu</a>. I've been by this bakery/cafe plenty of times and when I moved into my neighborhood my Uncle J. told me that Cafe Besalu serves the best French pastries. Um, yes please.

I can't believe how long it took me to stake out a table in the window to enjoy and Americano and a croissant. This place was amazing.

While I sometimes dream of Paris, I now know I can get a croissant that rivals anything I've ever eaten in Paris within three blocks of my Ballard apartment. How great is that?!

My date P. had a hot chocolate and a cookie. His mom A. who happens to be one of my dear high school friends had a quiche, a cookie and a cappuccino (or maybe a latte).

The hot chocolate was perfect or so I must assume. Mr. P. drank his with a straw and never put it down. Then he got serious about drawing. He drew a lot of classic cars and Alaskan airlines. As you can see, his line work thoughtful if not impressionistic and his color palette is simple but allows for a wide range of emotion.

A. and I had a wonderful time catching up and marveling at how lucky we were to snag a table in the window. The cafe got steadily busier but no one every seemed huffy or in a hurry. The fact that it was a Sunday probably helped.

Oh and I almost forgot, Cafe Besalu recently showed up on <a title="Yelp and Cafe Besalu" href="http://officialblog.yelp.com/2014/02/yelp-data-reveals-top-100-places-to-eat-bookmark-these-babies-now.html" target="_blank">Yelp's Top 100 restaurants in the US</a>. It's #33. That's pretty cool.

You should probably check it out.