Japonaise Café and Bakery
Fast, cheap, and out of curry doughnuts
On the Cheap by Stephen Heuser
Sometimes the cuisines of France and Japan dance an intricate duet on a
high-end fusion menu. Sometimes they meet in a bun. The ham roll at Japonaise
Café and Bakery, outside Audubon Circle in Brookline, has a sweet dough
that will be familiar to anyone who's had an Asian red-bean bun -- and it's
baked with chunks of ham and a bit of cheese in a way that will be familiar to
anyone who's had a ham-and-cheese croissant. The roll is snack-sized, about as
big as a scone, and snack-priced at $1.10. This is a bakery designed for people
who don't want to spend $6 or $7 to get a lunch too big for them anyway; for $2
you can get a little sandwich called a "potato croquette" (fried mashed-potato
patty and barbecue sauce on a sesame bun); for $3 you can get a "sandwich box":
four assorted half sandwiches, crusts trimmed off, lined up like soldiers at a
tea party. If you think that sounds too quirky, then you probably won't want
the noodle sandwich ($2) or the bottled Japanese "yogurt-flavored" drink
($1.25) or the "curry doughnut" ($1.70), a fried bun with a vegetable-curry
center, which tends to sell out by midday. Desserts are gorgeous and cost about
the same as the sandwiches. There's no ambiance as such, unless you count a
glass pastry case and wheeled trolleys of bread in the background. But there
are six outdoor tables and Beacon Street's eccentric afternoon parade to keep
you distracted, and sidewalk sparrows to help if you can't quite finish that
third ham roll
Japonaise Café and Bakery, located at 120 Beacon Street, in
Brookline, is open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and on Sunday
from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Call 566-7730.
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