Nova Cafe by Elizabeth Lee

It was 10:00 a.m. as Anne, Aidan, and I descended on Nova Café, thinking that most of the Bozemanites would have cleared out by then. We were about as wrong as the British in 1776. The moment we entered via the back entrance, we were mauled by an angry herd of bison (A.K.A. the colossal horde of people who hadn’t been served yet). 

Nova has created a culture in Bozeman by being privately owned and communally-centered. Nova really focuses on making your experience memorable and positive. They sponsor local events and give out T-shirts. What’s not to love? This popularity was proven by the average 35 minute wait for a table.  Luckily (for Nova) the day we went was an especially cold day and nobody wanted to make the journey back to the car. The waitress gave us one of those beeper things that tell you when your table is ready, and we took a seat in the cramped waiting area as people moseyed around us waiting to be seated. After an eternity of drinking coffee, waiting, talking, drinking coffee, waiting, talking, our beeper started flashing, making me jump. We were finally seated.

The vintage sparkly diner chairs were strangely pleasant next to the more modern atmosphere of the room. Wooden planks lined the walls with artistic drawings of food on them, brightening up the room and emphasizing the “hominess” of Nova. Thanks to the corner in which we had been seated, the noise level was extremely low. However, for the people seated in the main dining area it was an entirely different story. Even to me the noise was excruciating and my ears were plugged thanks to a cold. If you are going to go to Nova for breakfast, I recommend either getting there before 7:00 a.m., or after 11:00 a.m. so that your hearing and other senses are not completely plagued.

I decided to order eggs benedict. It took our meal eight minutes sixteen seconds to arrive, and was the perfect serving temperature. Not so hot that we had to wait for it to cool, and not so cold that it tasted like it had been dead for two months and then heated for thirty seconds in the microwave. When I dug my knife into the first of the pile of egg, ham, and muffin covered with the Hollandaise sauce, it cut somewhat easily (to my great joy) for Eggs Benedict.

The snowy whiteness of the egg whites against the yellow yolk nicely contrasted with with the more robust hues of the ham, muffin, and potato bits to the side. Although this dish was nowhere near dainty, it was appealing and it looked like there had been some thought as to the arrangement of the food.

I impaled the unending layers of local ham, egg, and English muffin until I eventually had a bit of everything on my fork. I’m not exactly the most careful eater in the world, but it doesn’t take Ruth Reichl to figure out that this dish had been constructed in a way that makes it virtually impossible to eat it in a fashion that does not involve looking like a lion hunched over a dead impala. I couldn’t help but wonder if Nova was trying to make it more rugged so people would think that they are truly a home-style restaurant. Even though Nova has a modern design, even though Nova has some “elegant eatery,” even though Nova keeps up with the times and is technologically savvy, they still want to appear to be a good-old down-to-heart kind of place. This was an interesting prospect to me and I pondered it the rest of my stay at Nova.   

Although the egg was cooked perfectly with a nice and runny yolk, there were way too many slices of ham. It overpowered the English muffin slice and sauce so much that I had to remove half of the slices of ham and stockpile them for later on the side of my plate. The Hollandaise sauce was creamy with a little bit of spice, giving the dish a little punch. Besides the ham, the only other thing that held the plate back were the potato bits. They tasted a bit bland and dry, making it feel like you were trying to swallow a freeze-dried pillow. However, this could be remedied by applying a couple squirts of ketchup.

Eventually, our check came and the total for two Eggs Benedict and one waffle was surprisingly cheap at $32.00. We were about to pay when Aidan elected to get a hot chocolate, which I must say sounded pretty good. The waiter was then forced to take back our check and make another to accommodate for the hot coco. He did this with a very positive attitude and gave us a genuine “thank you” when we left. Not just the, “Thank you come again,” that is normally recited to you upon leaving a restaurant, but a real: “Thank you guys for coming in!” He also served us with an upbeat attitude and seemed to, strangely, enjoy being a waiter. Nice job Nova!

When we ascended from Nova, the mood was a good one except for one slight problem: Rather worryingly, Aidan’s Hot Coco cup had an arrow pointing to the “Sip hole.” What kind of mumbling mongoose would monogram that miserable montage of words to map my mug’s “Sip Hole?!” Apparently, mumbling mongooses from Nova’s art team would. I could just imagine some office worker, desperate for promotion, coming up with the “Sip Hole” while on coffee break.

I would recommend Nova to people who like a good meal and not one of those artsy patties that consist of something green with gold shavings on top. My kind of food!