Freda's Uptown Cafe

 Freda’s Uptown Café
210 W. Jackson St., Marshfield, 417-859-7251
 Open Mon.–Sat., 5 a.m.–2 p.m.,
Sunday, 6:30 a.m.–2 p.m
 

While reporting on January’s Best Breakfasts feature, I couldn’t help but drool over each and every one of the items highlighted. And having to taste test many of those dishes, it’s a wonder that I still manage to fit through the door. But in the midst of gorging myself on cheesy omelets and blueberry-packed muffins, I stumbled upon the stuffed French toast at Freda’s Uptown Café, and after wiping the last bit of strawberry filling off my chin, I made a mental note to make a trip back to Marshfield to try out the restaurant’s lunch menu. So just a few weeks after the January issue hit the shelves (and my waistline had finally deflated), I wandered back to Freda’s.

The lunch menu at Freda’s Uptown Café is made up of true diner classics including country-fried steak, hamburgers, the always-present club sandwich, a BLT and plenty of onion rings and French fries to go around. In the mood for something really terrible for me, it was the Philly cheesesteak that caught my eye, in part because this is not a usual suspect on diner menus. So with a little help from the waitress, who suggested I order the Philly on grilled sourdough bread instead of the standard hoagie, I placed my order and eagerly waited.

I’m happy to report that the Philly cheesesteak at Freda’s is just as good as her stuffed French toast. The butter-brushed grilled sourdough offered the perfect amount of bread for an appropriate bread-to-meat ratio. Melted Swiss cheese was streaked throughout the tender sirloin steak, and there were just enough chopped sweet onions to give each bite a slight crunch (I ordered it without green peppers). But here’s a tip: Because the sourdough is much thinner than the hoagie, the bottom slice of bread gets soggy if you let this sandwich sit on your plate too long.

Full but not yet stuffed, I ordered some of the blackberry cobbler a la mode and warmed. Steam was still rolling off the cobbler when it arrived at my table, and the warm, gooey blackberry filling was quickly melting the sweet vanilla ice cream. The cold bite of the ice cream went great with the warm, sticky filling that was oozing out of the flaky crust.

Driving home, I was already marking my calendar to make another trip to Marshfield to enjoy the rest of Freda’s delectable dishes.

By Ettie Berneking | ettie@417mag.com