Stoney Place Cafe delivers delightful al fresco lunch

Editor's Note: Reviews are based on a single, unannounced, and anonymous visit. Your experience may differ from what is presented here.

There are lots of advantages to working with my husband here in Morganton. We save gas by carpooling most days from our home in Marion. In Marty, I have my own personal editor, who offers brilliant suggestions for improving stories I’ve written. And we can have lunch together, anytime we want.

Last week, we’d both had busy mornings on our respective newspaper beats, and we needed a little decompression time. We decided to take a break and have lunch.

I pored over the Downtown Morganton newsletter that’s delivered in my email each Wednesday morning, looking to try a place where neither of us had eaten. Stoney Place Cafe looked interesting, and they were open for lunch that day, so we decided to check the place out.

HIDDEN GEM

Stoney Place Cafe is tucked away below the hustle and bustle of North Sterling Street, on a little one-way lane. Even though the cafe is less than three blocks from our office, we chose to drive since we both had appointments after lunch. We arrived at 12:35 p.m. and easily found a parking spot near the cafe.

The restaurant has a beautiful courtyard, where several tables with colorful umbrellas are located. Guests use a walk-up window in the side of a small rectangular building I later learned had once been a shipping container.

Stoney Place Cafe does not offer in-house dining — customers order at the window and wait for their food, which can be packaged to-go or placed on a tray for courtyard dining.

THE MENU

The menu isn’t complicated. Five types of sandwiches and three salads are listed on the left side of a small whiteboard near the serving window. I learned that this is the regular menu, which is always available. (Changes are made seasonally)

The menu includes chicken, tuna and egg salad sandwiches as well as pimento cheese or ham and turkey on a choice of breads, including white, wheat, sourdough, 12-grain and croissants. The salad menu features a chef salad along with apple walnut and strawberry salads.

The right-hand side of the board is dedicated to daily specials. On the day Marty and I visited, the special was grilled chicken salad. Homemade pasta salad was the day’s choice as a side dish. Stoney Place Cafe also offers a good selection of chips and lemonade, sodas, tea and water as drink options.

OUR ORDER

I ordered a chicken salad croissant ($6.50) with pasta salad and lemonade. Marty had a tuna salad sandwich ($5) on 12-grain bread as well as pasta salad for his side dish. His drink choice was an “Arnold Palmer,'' a half-and-half mixture of tea and lemonade.

Felicia, the owner and sole worker at the cafe, upgraded our sandwiches and pasta salads to the “combo” price, (which was not listed on the menu) which obviously gave us a price break, because both hearty sandwiches, two heaping servings of pasta salad, two drinks (with refills) and one flaky apple turnover rang up to $22.95.

Marty opened his wallet and discovered he only had $22 in cash and Felicia quickly told us to forget the .95, that $22 was plenty. I dug around in my purse and found another dollar, so we didn’t have to take her up on her generous offer.

Stoney Place Cafe does accept credit and debit cards as well as cash.

We watched as Felicia opened the refrigerator and scooped generous helpings of chicken and tuna salads onto our sandwiches and wrapped them carefully in paper. The pasta salad was served in reusable, heavy-duty plastic containers with snap on lids.

Felicia’s service was fast and friendly. She chatted with us as she prepared our lunches (that’s when we found out the building was a shipping container) and delivered our tray to the window in less than 5 minutes.

SEATING AND THE MEAL

The courtyard at Stoney Place Cafe is open and airy with four tables with umbrellas that seat between four and six people, two uncovered tables (four-seaters) and a couple of seating areas with chairs and benches. Every eating surface was spotless and even though it was sunny and quite warm on the day we visited, Marty and I were very comfortable at our covered table.

My sandwich was perfection. Felicia’s homemade chicken salad was creamy and filled with chunks of white meat chicken and halved grapes — my favorite style of the food. The croissant was fresh and tender. And the pasta salad? It was so tangy and delicious that I would have asked Felicia for the recipe had it not given away the fact I was there to write a review. My lemonade was also terrific — the perfect combination of tart and sweet.

Marty also gave the tuna salad high marks, and he loved the pasta salad so much, I actually saw him eyeing my bowl after he finished his own. His Arnold Palmer was also refreshing and delicious.

We planned to take the apple turnover back to the office for a mid-afternoon snack, but it looked so good, we decided to split it before we left the cafe. The crust was flaky and tender, and the pastry had just enough apple filling, so it didn’t drip out of the turnover when I took a bite. It was the perfect finish for our al fresco lunch.

THE VERDICT

Stoney Place Cafe is a perfect little hidden gem in downtown Morganton. While the menu is limited, it offers a good variety of choices for anyone looking for a light lunch. Prices are very reasonable, and the restaurant and tables were spotlessly clean.

Felicia offered terrific, friendly customer service and even called out to personally thank each customer who left the courtyard.

Stoney Place Cafe offers daily specials in addition to their regular menu. Most days, specials are posted on the business’ Facebook page. Recent offerings have included Taco Salad, chicken and dumplings (typically served on Fridays), livermush sandwiches, baked spaghetti and potato soup.

Dessert specials have included banana pudding and brownies.

Marty and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit to this unique eatery. Stoney Place Cafe is sure to become a regular choice for our downtown lunches.