Agra Culture Cafe, Minneapolis Institute of Art

Note: 2023 - Due to the pandemic, museum visits were on a long break…hope to get out there exploring and sipping coffee and writing more blog posts soon… but there’s plenty to remember here so far. I do have a 2022 museum visit I need to post, the Anne of Green Gables Museum on Prince Edward Island. Regretfully we did not make it to the Potato Museum on PEI though - I did hear they have a cafe that serves - only potatoes!

Photo: vjaa.com

Why travel the world when there are world-class museums and museum cafes right here? Finally took my own advice and checked out the newly-redesigned lobby and cafe at Minneapolis Institute of Art. In 2015 the Minneapolis architects VJAA refreshed the design of the MIA entrances, main lobby and cafe. Loved it!

Cool and Comfortable

Yes, there’s a low ceiling but there the resemblance to the Smithsonian cafes ended. The area is welcoming and airy. The cafe chairs and tables enhance the space, rather than distract. The old cafe was tucked in a dark corner - the Agra Culture cafe proudly dominates the lobby and uses very cool white chairs to do it. I was delighted with the light and bright aesthetic. Plus the seating was comfortable - not always a given for eye-candy chairs. Met two friends there for coffee and it was a very pleasant environment to sit and talk and relax.

Photo: vjaa.com

Arch Cafe & Arch View Cafe, Gateway Arch Museum, St. Louis, MO

I was in St. Louis last year for an education conference so grabbed the chance to check out the Gateway Arch Museum and its two cafes. (I did go up to the top of the Arch as well - let’s just say that’s not for claustrophobics and leave it at that.)  The new, expanded Gateway Museum and Gateway Arch National Park opened in mid-2018.  

Sometimes, Too Close is Too Close

The Arch Café is down in the underground museum expansion below the Arch. It’s a straightforward spot with self-service deli cases, hot food counter, a pay station, and bright orange/red seating in a corner of the central mall area.  It’s also smack bang right next to the large restrooms.  Handy to be so close… unless you object to the atmosphere. Literally. I didn’t linger there.  Not a fan of subterranean environments and wasn’t hungry, thirsty or tired enough to change my mind.

Photo: mary ringstad

Back Out in the Open Air

I was more interested in visiting the Arch View Café, which is located on the dock where the riverboats are stationed, ready for cruise tours.  Improved sight lines! It’s a counter service window with picnic tables. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right and it wasn’t open. It would have been nice to sit out there. Time to head back to the hotel for room service.

Photo: mary ringstad

Photo: mary ringstad

Mini-Reviews, Smithsonian Institution Cafes, Washington, D.C.

American History Museum

I stopped by both cafes here but did not stay and rest at either one. The LeRoy Neiman Jazz Café was on the first floor, a colorful spot featuring regional menus and a coffee bar, with tall windows on one side that look out on the front courtyard of the museum.

Photo: mary ringstad

Photo: mary ringstad

Their Eat at America’s Table cafe on the ground floor was a vast space with low ceilings and, frankly, the uninviting school cafeteria atmosphere which usually sends me packing. Huge, unadorned support pillars added to the gloom. I didn’t give it a chance and decided to press on to the Natural History Museum and see what they had. Surely it must be better than this.  I do indeed understand museum cafes often have to serve large volumes of visitors (the American History Museum website said their Eat at America’s Table cafe seats 600.).

I took some grim photos of it - and looked on the web for better ones. It’s worth noting that there are not a lot of photos of it on the web! Even on their own site. Which tells you something. It’s the food that matters, I suppose, and I’m sure they work hard at it, but atmosphere is mostly what I write about here.

High marks, though, for a creative display at the entrance – a collection of popular lunchboxes through past American eras.  

Photo: mary ringstad

Photo: mary ringstad

Natural History Museum

This was one long, steamy day in July, and my iPhone had recorded over 20,000 steps already.  I had spurned the American History Museum cafes in hopes of a more refreshing spot at the Natural History Museum.  When I finally arrived there, footsore and frazzled – I discovered that a new café was under construction – and the stopgap in the meantime was an old gallery on the top floor that looked like an over-sized school gymnasium. High, opaque windows and all.  With school cafeteria tables and chairs (serves me right) – and a row of vending machines and a pay station.  That was it. By then I was willing to sit down even in a gym for a cold drink and a snack. Any port in a storm.  So I did.

Photo: mary ringstad

Smithsonian Castle - Castle Café

The Smithsonian Institution encourages visitors to begin their museum journey here at the Castle - the signature building and home of their Visitor Center. Everything you need to know to plan your visit is here – as well as the Castle Café.  The Castle was completed in 1855 – and while the café is just a modern snack bar in a corner, with tables in the lobby, the 1855 part becomes clear when you look up at the ceiling.  Literally – a highlight.  I ended up stopping here last, not first, (trust me to do things backward) on the morning I was headed to the airport to go home, but a treat and a place to sit down is always welcome on a busy day. Especially with such a palatial feel. Now, that’s atmosphere.

Photo: mary ringstad

Photo: mary ringstad

Photo: washington.org

Garden Cafe, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

My visit to the Garden Café at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC was notable for several reasons – it was the first time I visited the most upscale dining option a museum offers, I was meeting a friend from high school who lives in DC, and – despite being the most upscale – the first time I felt like an exhibit in a museum myself.

Brunch at the Garden

We were there on a weekend and decided to treat ourselves to the Brunch Buffet. The Garden Café consists of chairs and tables surrounding a fountain in the back atrium of the Main Floor of the West building of the National Gallery. Diners enjoy their meals behind velvet ropes… you feel like you’re on display. Throngs of visitors are circling past on their way to other exhibits and ogling your dining choices.  It was a bit like being in a zoo. But we were not tigers crouching over a haunch of meat.  In any case, once my friend and I were engaged in conversation and sipping our coffee, I forgot about the visitors mostly. (I hope the tigers do too.) The picture above was taken at a quiet moment before the venue opened.

Access Denied?

The Garden Cafe Weekend Brunch Buffet is $ 30 a person (as of July 2019) - and they want to make sure you know it. At the host stand they will ask you - you know this is expensive, right? They cite the price and make sure you want to stay. It makes you concerned that your appearance doesn’t signify an ability to pay such a price and that your acceptance in this rarefied air is not forthcoming. But I heard them make that point to everyone who approached so they must be tired of seating people and then having them walk out when the price is mentioned. The price is indeed posted, but as we all know, people don’t often read or are tired and just don’t notice.

Time to Relax

Once you’ve achieved a table - they offer an upscale buffet of soups, seasonal salads, pancakes, egg frittatas, charcuterie platter, salmon and roasted chicken, as well as fruit and mini-desserts. We did enjoy catching up over our leisurely brunch in such a beautiful setting. Despite the onlookers.

Photo: www.nga.gov/visit/cafes

Sightglass Coffee & Cafe 5, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco

I grew up in the Bay Area and “The City” has always meant San Francisco to me. Some things have changed there and some things have not. I can’t get used to the new skyline… but it’s high time I did. On a February 2018 visit, there was time to visit a museum cafe.

Names and Places

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art has three signature sites where you can relax and absorb what you’ve seen in the galleries – as well as a small coffee kiosk that is just called ‘the coffee kiosk on Floor 2’. No name. Per their website. Someone ran out of creativity or energy.  In a museum!

The places with actual names are Sightglass Coffee (a branch of a local coffee chain), Café 5, a counter-service restaurant for light meals in an airy glass wing, and In Situ, a Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant. (No, I didn’t go there.  But it does have a cool name.)

I met an old friend at SFMOMA and we visited both Sightglass and Café 5 during our day at the museum.

Sightglass had an excellent brew and friendly baristas.  “Every coffee is prepared right before your eyes for your enjoyment and sensory delight” – as their website says. I would expect nothing less in an art museum. We passed up the crowded photo gallery seating and found a table along the rail overlooking the Museum’s main atrium.  An airy space always enhances my sensory delight in museum cafes.

Photo: greg sherwin / coffeeratings.com

Photo: mary ringstad

 Higher and Higher

After an appropriate amount of time viewing the galleries, it was time for refreshment again. We visited Café 5, up on the fifth of seven levels. It’s a long, narrow, space adjacent to the Sculpture Garden, with glass walls on both sides.  The café offers a limited menu of “California-fusion fare” featuring seasonal ingredients.   Along with local wines. We chose a Mediterranean plate of assorted hummus dips, chutneys and pita triangles.

Photo: sfmoma.org

Frozen in Time

Photo: sfmoma.org

While the California-fusion cuisine didn’t really stick in my mind – The Snowman did. I had come to San Francisco in February for several reasons – one was getting away from the snow in Minnesota.  So I was amused to find a Snowman preserved in a glass case on a terrace.

The Snowman was first created in 1987 by Peter Fischli and David Weiss for a power plant commission (yes, the power plant wanted art in front!)  in Saarbrucken, Germany. The artists decided their concept should be powered by the plant – to make more of a statement  – and per Cara Manes, assistant curator of sculpture at New York’s MOMA,  “the piece raises complex questions about climate change, both as a commentary on energy use as well as a contradiction, since the work itself could be seen as a contributor to global warming.” 

In 2016 a second traveling Snowman was created that spent time at the Art Institute of Chicago, then at SFMOMA, where we saw him in 2018, and then on to New York’s Museum of Modern Art, where he has taken up residence in their Sculpture Garden.   The “snow” is actually water continually condensing and freezing around a copper figure in the refrigerated case. He has retained his frosty smile where ever he has appeared.  SF MOMA described the work as “exploring tensions between the ephemeral and permanent, and the natural and artificial…” when he debuted there.

An Artistic Mix

So, my visit was a complex tapestry of conversation with someone I have known for more than 50 years, coffee and its sensory delights, California-fusion fare, provocative artwork, and the ephemeral permanence of artificial snow in The City By The Bay. 

Dublin Writers Museum, Parnell Square

Note 2023 - sadly the Dublin Writers Museum is now closed.

I was born in Tipperary, and have been back to Ireland a few times, including 2012 when I spent four days exploring Dublin with my younger son.  He enjoyed a visit to  the James Joyce Centre (I haven’t read Ulysses all the way through – have you?) while I opted for an hour or two at the Dublin Writers Museum.

Simple on the Outside, Ornate on the Inside

This quirky, haphazard, or charming, depending on who you talk to, museum is located in a fine 18th century Georgian house in Parnell Square, a few blocks off the northern end of O’Connell Street.  The building used to be the family mansion of the Jameson whiskey barons, and includes a beautifully ornate, gilded ballroom on the upper level. (Where you’ll find James Joyce’s piano. Must have been a museum tug of war on that one.)

Photo:  DublinPass site

Failte Ireland , the Irish Tourist Board, which now owns the museum, describes it this way on their website:  

"In 1991, the Dublin Writers Museum was opened to house a history and celebration of literary Dublin.  The collection features the lives and works of Dublin's literary celebrities over the past three hundred years.  Swift and Sheridan, Shaw and Wilde, Yeats, Joyce and Beckett are among those presented through their books, letters, portraits and personal items."

Not in a Cafe

In 2012 there was a small café down the hall from a bookstore on the basement level, part of an annex behind the building. I ended up not stopping there; it was about to close, plus it was  small and dark.  I like large, airy museum cafes best.  Now, in 2018, the  bookstore remains but the café has been turned into a fine dining restaurant called Chapter One.  The claustrophobic  closeness has morphed into cozy, catacomb-like charm.  Expensive but it seems to be a hit! 

Since I did not stop at the café  during my visit, my customary break  was spent walking across the street to the Garden of Remembrance (park honoring Irish freedom fighters) to rest on a bench and enjoy a Wispa candy bar.  (This aerated chocolate  is divine - I got pocketfuls of them as I walked miles around town. They were conveniently priced at one euro coin each.  I've even had them shipped over here from the UK.)  

In a Cafe

 In a small room off the ballroom upstairs I discovered a display for the short story writer Mary Lavin (1912-1996).   A large portrait of Mary was hanging above a display case, and the pendant she was wearing in the painting was  in the case, along with her childhood teddy bear (complete with lace dress.)   There was also a letter  that she had carefully saved ... the one bringing news of her first literary award, the  1943 James Tait Black Memorial Prize  for her  debut collection of short stories, Tales from Bective Bridge.  Heady stuff for a writer.

Photo: University College Dublin 

The next day I  went to a bookstore and purchased a few of her story collections .  "In a Cafe" and "Lilacs" are two of her most famous works.   I read "Lilacs" over coffee and croissants at a busy restaurant  (not a quiet cafe) near our hotel. Mary Lavin had a poignant command of human feelings and failings.  She wrote with "staunch and pessimistic realism,"  according to University College Dublin.  

Photo: Goodreads site 

An Arrow in Flight  

Another intriguing discovery during this  adventure was a wonderful insight into short story writing. While reading all I could get my hands on about Mary Lavin I found an interview where she  described a well-written  short story as  "an arrow in flight."    She said the art of creating short stories doesn't involve beginnings or endings - it's all about capturing that powerful arc right in the middle. A moment in time. That hits you right between the eyes. The rest is left to our imaginations. 

Daily Planet Cafe - North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

This is the first time that I visited a museum… and its café, of course… and came home with a painting! In November 2017 I attended a marketing conference in downtown Raleigh, home of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  When checking out the museum before leaving on the trip, I saw the stunning photo above and instantly wanted to go there.  Yes, that globe is cool.  It houses the Daily Planet Theatre, which hosts science programs and 3-D displays of nature scenes. When I hurried past the interior, on my way to the café, it was snowing inside the planet -  a snow globe!

I was hurrying because my flight had been delayed and the museum was closing soon.  Had enough time to grab coffee and a great turkey burger at their Daily Planet Café. Snapped a quick photo – note the painting showing on the TV screen.  The café and coffee bar are in  a modern, streamlined space with big windows out onto the street, a pleasant, airy environment. They even had a small stage for lectures and presentations. Learning while eating – that’s something I can get behind.

Photo: Mary Ringstad 

Planets Lead to Cardinals

Once the café had been fully explored, I was able to take a quick look at some of the exhibits and swing by the gift shop for note cards.  Their gift shop also hosts an art gallery featuring the work of local artists. There was a small painting of red and yellow cardinals that caught my eye. Simple, refreshing, bright colors.  Cheerful.  We all need “cheerful.” The paintings on exhibit were for sale, but that one had been snapped up right away. I was advised that  note cards featuring the painting also sold out immediately.  I wasn't the only one that liked it! 

Cardinals Lead to Orchids - and the Ultimate Souvenir  

Back at the hotel, I looked up the artist’s name in case she also sold cards from a website.  She did!  Rita Baldwin is a painter who lives in Pittsboro, NC and also runs the Orchid Gallery. (One of their services is Orchid Boarding – who knew there was such a thing?! It’s just what it sounds like…) I ended up exchanging emails with Rita and the next thing you know – I was ordering an original work. She painted a version of the cardinals just for me. (The cardinal is the state bird of North Carolina – so, this was the ultimate souvenir of a Raleigh museum.) And here is the painting. 

Painting: Rita Baldwin 

Kentucky Derby Museum Cafe, Louisville

Photo: Mary Ringstad 

The 2017 Kentucky Derby, the 143rd running of this historic race, is coming up in a few weeks – what better time to talk about the Kentucky Derby Museum Café.

The first Saturday of May is always a red-letter day on my calendar – I haven’t missed the television coverage, ever – or at least as long as I can remember. At least 50 of the last 142 races, for sure. 

In October 2010 I traveled to Louisville especially to visit Churchill Downs racetrack and the Kentucky Derby Museum.  And the Kentucky Derby Museum Cafe...

The Undefeated Barbaro

The forecourt of the Kentucky Derby Museum at Churchill Downs is also the site of a magnificent statue honoring Barbaro, winner of the Kentucky Derby in 2006. After his six-length Derby victory, a “sublime performance,” according to the famous race call, he was injured in the Preakness Stakes. He battled through eight months of surgeries, recoveries and complications, with unprecedented world media coverage and the attention and prayers of millions, but could not be saved. The horse that was never beaten in the six races he finished is buried beneath the statue that depicts his greatest victory.

Down the Homestretch

 To enter the gallery areas  of the Museum you can walk through a real starting gate, an effective and creative idea. And the Museum's location right at Churchill Downs enables the starry-eyed visitor to take a tour of the actual racetrack as well. I was excited to place my toe (we weren't allowed to walk on it!) on the  soft dirt of the long, famous homestretch, thrilled to be up in the actual race caller’s booth at the top of the stands, and delighted to be  allowed on the upper deck so close to the famed Twin Spires that I could almost touch them. 

Another Kentucky Classic

Of course an additional highlight of my visit was the Kentucky Derby Museum Café.  I had looked forward to trying a famous  Hot Brown. Almost as popular as the local bourbons, this "sandwich"  originated at the Brown Hotel in Louisville back in the early 1900's, created by Chef Fred Schmitt.  What is it? As the Museum Café Menu describes it: 

This hot open-faced sandwich is a Kentucky classic! Sliced turkey on toasted bread smothered with a blend of bechamel and mornay sauces, then topped with bacon and fresh sliced tomatoes. Garnished with Parmesan cheese and bourbon-smoked paprika.

Photo:  Derbymuseum.org

Yes, it was as good as it sounds!  The Café's windows look out onto a plaza and the paddock area that houses a Thoroughbred racehorse who has run in the Kentucky Derby. The Museum arranges for a retired Derby runner to be temporarily stabled there – along with a small pony for company – so visitors can see living history. A Derby veteran spends a few months at the Museum and then leaves for greener pastures (don't worry - not what that sounds like!) and another former racer arrives. You can see the paddock in the photo below. While I enjoyed my lunch and coffee I watched the current occupant rolling in the sunshine. An appropriate view for a Derby Museum!  

Photo: Derbymuseum.org

Museum Island & the Bode Museum Cafe, Berlin

The River Spree runs through the center of Berlin, and right at the heart, just before the Berliner Dom, it wraps around Museum Island.  As the Visit Berlin web site says, Museum Island is home to an extraordinary ensemble of five world-renowned museums:  the Pergamon, the Bode, the Neues, the Altes and the Alte Nationalgalerie.  And, as I say, one magnificent Bode café!

When I visited Berlin in 2013, my son and I stayed for a week in a large apartment in the Prenzlauer Berg district. It was in the SmartLoft building - check it out if you’re headed to Berlin. We loved it.  And as a combination art gallery/apartment hotel, it was very appropriate for a museum trip!  

Summer in the City 

From our part of Prenzlauer Berg, it was about a 20-minute walk down to the Spree and Museum Island.  Berlin was in the middle of a heat wave when we were there – my usual M.O. was walk a few blocks, stop for an iced latte, walk a few more blocks… stop for an iced latte…so sometimes it took more than 20 minutes.

When I did make it down to the Island, I went right into the Neues Museum, to see Nefertiti.  It was early and I was alone with her majesty in the sweltering room, except for a guard just outside the door. I’m sure she felt at home. After exploring several floors of the museum, I was ready for a break. When I found the Neues museum café, it turned out to be a very narrow, long room off the main lobby.  I love airy, spacious cafes. This was closed-in and dark. The air-conditioning was a powerful draw, but it didn’t overcome the claustrophobia. 

Back to Babylon 

I pressed on to the Pergamon, and saw the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Altar.  I had heard they had a nice terrace café, and a terrace sounded better than the narrow café at the Neues.  Unfortunately, their terrace café was closed for construction.  Onward.  I hadn’t read much about the Bode Museum, at the northern tip of the island, and surprises always seem to be best travel discoveries. It’s a breathtaking museum, obviously, and it turned out to have an amazing café. 

Two for the Price of One 

The Bode Café has a split personality. Once you’ve climbed one side of the double staircase in the magnificent, soaring entrance hall, you reach the mezzanine where there are tables and chairs near the beautifully ornate railings. Through two large doors you enter the café itself, a modern enclave, with a black and white color scheme and large black banquettes against the wall.  Green marble tables and black chairs accompany the banquettes. And it’s nice and cool.  For a footsore, overheated traveler, it was a very welcome sight. I sank into a chair and ordered water, a salad and yes, an iced latte.  A server went by with a tray of very refreshing-looking ice cream floats for a group that was sitting out on the mezzanine - I made a mental note that I must bring my son back for a treat tomorrow.  And I did.  So we enjoyed the Bode Cafe twice. The second time we sat out on the mezzanine and enjoyed the baroque splendor with our ice cream floats.

I was so glad that I stuck to the adventurer’s mantra, “There’s something better around the corner.”  The Bode Café was a palatial reward. 

Photos: Mary Ringstad

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The Getty Center Garden Terrace Cafe, Los Angeles

Sometimes a photo says it all.  Or one look in real life.  The image above captures my favorite impression of the Getty. A friend and I visited the Getty Center for the first time just a few weeks ago.  After arriving at the top of the hill via their tram, we were drawn, not to the main lobby at the top of the stairs, but to the back wall of the entry complex. We wanted to see the famed view of Los Angeles.  

We looked down and saw the Garden Terrace Cafe instead.  I was entranced.  I have to go there. It's amazing. Like a temple, with those tall columns of stone.  We did walk through some of the museum exhibits first. True to form, as we wandered past masterpieces by Van Gogh and Monet, all I could think of was – I want to go to that cool terrace! 

After a tour of the museum just long enough to prove I take fine art seriously, it was off to the Garden Terrace Café. There is just a small snack bar counter  inside – it’s the seating area outside that makes it so amazing. All the buildings at the Getty Center are clad in Italian travertine, which adds to the temple-like feeling under the columns.  The Getty website explains the look, feel and origins of the travertine:

 “The stone—1.2 million square feet of it—is one of the most remarkable elements of the complex. This beige-colored, cleft-cut, textured, fossilized travertine catches the bright Southern California light, reflecting sharply during morning hours, and emitting a honeyed warmth in the afternoon.

Meier chose stone for this project because it is often associated with public architecture and expresses qualities the Getty Center celebrates: permanence, solidity, simplicity, warmth, and craftsmanship.

The 16,000 tons of travertine are from Bagni di Tivoli, Italy, 15 miles east of Rome. Many of the stones revealed fossilized leaves, feathers, and branches when they were split along their natural grain. Meier and his staff worked for a year with the quarries to invent a process using a guillotine to produce the unique finish.”

The Getty has another, more traditional cafeteria – and a fine dining restaurant. Their  Garden Terrace Café is only open during the summer.  When we arrived, the terrace was just starting to get busy. We sipped coffee and split a caprese sandwich while admiring the view of Los Angeles - the air was pretty clear that day.

Photo:   ©jasoninhollywood       

These huge rebar and bougainvillea "trees" are just below the Garden Terrace Cafe. 

As usual, it’s the  unique surroundings, not just the coffee and snacks, that most intrigue me about museum cafes.   The magnificent Garden Terrace Café at the Getty – the temple of museum cafes – is now right up there with the Bode on my “wow” list.  

Scottish National Portrait Gallery Cafe, Edinburgh

When I visited Edinburgh, I made sure to make my way to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery   and its Café Portrait.  (Their website, which I just retrieved for this blog post,  has the wonderful line “Come face to face with Scotland, past and present”… good writing!)  The Portrait Gallery is located in a “neo-gothic palace” on Queen Street in New Town (on the ridge to the north of Edinburgh Castle, built up starting in the late 1700s, as opposed to Old Town below the castle, dating from the early 12th century or before.) Per their website, the Gallery opened to the public in 1889 as the world’s first purpose-built portrait exhibition.

Rather than using Fodor’s, I was using a favorite author’s books as my guide for the day’s adventures.  Alexander McCall Smith has two series set in Edinburgh and he likes to incorporate real cafes and shops in his narratives.  In his Isabel Dalhousie series, his characters particularly like to meet at the Café at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.  So I knew I had to check it out. 

I started the afternoon having lunch at Glass & Thompson, which figures prominently in Smith's books also. Had a wonderful mozzarella and tomato salad, and of course discovered that he did indeed take some literary license in the details. Sorry Alexander, you can NOT see the Firth of Forth down the hill from their front window.  Then I walked across New Town and down to Valvolla & Crolla’s original shop, established in 1934, and yet another frequent destination for his characters.  An amazing Italian deli, and I’m happy to report that his descriptions included no hyperbole there. 

Then it was back to the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to rest in the Café.  But first, I went upstairs to the galleries to go “face to face” with the inhabitants. Smith mentions one of the famous paintings, The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, by Sir Henry Raeburn, in the books.  I did indeed find and study that painting.  About a year after I visited, the painting became the subject of many news articles, here’s one and here’s another, questioning whether it was really a work of Raeburn (one of McCall Smith’s favorites.)  I can imagine he enjoyed the controversy.

The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, by Sir Henry Raeburn (?)  Image from www.nationalgalleries.org 

Finally, time to discover the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Café. It’s an airy mix of old and new design, and really is a pleasant place to meet friends or just rest after an afternoon of chasing imaginary characters around real Edinburgh.  There is a modern, streamlined deli counter at the back, with a friendly staff.  As I paid for my treat, a 50p coin fell right into my latte cup, and they cheerfully made me another.  Through arched openings there is a large seating area lined with art, as appropriate. They have a wonderful variety of salads, sandwiches, and desserts that they prepare right there, (no plastic-wrapped sandwiches delivered at 6 am… last Tuesday) as well as afternoon tea service. They’re proud to use local, organic ingredients and fresh seasonal produce.

A frothy latte and a luxurious slice of chocolate cake restored my spirits and my faith in Alexander McCall Smith. 

Photography by John Mckenzie   © National Galleries of Scotland, from www.nationalgalleries.org

Museum Cafe Blog

I've traveled for many years,  and while appreciating many of the world's finest museums, I am always drawn - usually first!  - to the most universal of the aesthetic arts.   A good cup of coffee and a comfortable chair in a dynamic setting.  Just to sit and catch your breath,  unfurl a map or two, and cast a jet-lagged eye on  everything that  is new all around you. 

Two favorites are the magnificent Cafe at the Bode Museum in Berlin, and believe it or not, a beautiful and airy  Starbucks on Princes Street in Edinburgh. While not a museum cafe itself, the huge second-floor (first as it is called in Europe) space has four sky-high, beautifully ornate windows that look right up at Edinburgh Castle.  Qualifying it as an annex of a museum-caliber cafe.  In my book. Or my blog. 

 I will be adding entries on many of the museum cafes that I have enjoyed a few quiet moments in around the world... Dublin, Edinburgh, Berlin, Kentucky, Washington, D.C., Ohio, Amsterdam, Alaska, Wisconsin,  London, Munich, and more. 

Photo: David Bank     David-Bank.com           Bode Cafe Terrace, Berlin. 

Photo: Aliona Niraula         Starbucks on Princes Street,  Edinburgh, under Edinburgh Castle.