Free Press Word of Mouth

SYLVIA RECTOR WORD OF MOUTH
Birmingham's Maple Leaf Cafe keeps it natural
November 29, 2007
BY SYLVIA RECTOR
FREE PRESS RESTAURANT REPORTER
The first reason you'll want to try chef Jeorge Swanson's itty-bitty new Maple Leaf Café in downtown Birmingham is that the food is creative, fresh and hearty.
The second is that he's cooking only with organic and natural ingredients and keeping prices competitive.
Advertisement
OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1');




Maple Leaf also is vegan- and vegetarian-friendly, but don't let that scare you off if you love a great burger or two-fisted sandwich.
Swanson, whose resume includes Lily's Seafood in Royal Oak and Sweet Lorraine's, opened in early October in the former location of a Thai restaurant at 297 E. Maple between Woodward and Old Woodward.
He seats just 40, so you may have to wait. But based on my first-taste visit, I think you'll want to stick around.
Breakfast includes items such as sweet potato pancakes with toasted pecan honey butter, Mediterranean scramble and crab cakes-and-eggs.
Lunch ranges from Five-Star Meatloaf and roasted butternut squash fritters to salads, overstuffed sandwiches and half-pound Certified Angus Beef burgers.
Swanson says about 80% of his food is organic, and the rest is naturally produced.
"I have kids, and I would not want to see them eat genetically modified products or things with growth hormones in them," he says. "I'm trying to feed the people the same kind of food I feed my family."
He's open 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

Thanksgiving Pics

Here are some pics from Turkey Day. I would have had some of james but he slept the whole time. Jeorge is missing because he was at the Lion's game.

Thanksgiving Massacre

Jeorge scored tickets for the Lions game today from my bro as a late bday present. The Lions were torched again by the one and only Favre. It was painful to watch and to top it off Sports Radio was filled with all the peeps who got off the bandwagon. I don't know they must have been fooled by the cornbread. The lions were the least of our worries this Thanksgiving. Later, while we were enjoying our wonderful meal the table collapsed. Everything was spilling, breaking, and flying everywhere. My brother and Jeorge got drenched by water and red wine while trying to hold the table up to prevent everything from just falling all over my mom's rug. I included a pic of how the table looked before we dined and the aftermath of the table catastrophe. We were left without the scrumptious apple pie my mom had baked because my dad kicked us out. We settled for coffee and a cookie from Dunkin Donuts. Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Friday

My day started off bright and early today at 3am. James is battling a chest cold and was awoken by his cough. It officially ended our two week streak of him sleeping from 11-8am. I had forgotten how spoiled I had become until I heard his cries from the monitor at 3. While I was feeding him I got hooked on an informercial for a steam mop. It was so convincing that I actually programmed the number to order the product into my cell phone. I have actually ordered one other product from an informercial, The Chop Wizard, and it was a gem. I am still on the fence about this steam mop. Do other people get sucked into these? In other news, Jeorge had a great day at the restaurant. It was his first weekday that he hit over a 1000 in sales and he was thrilled. The weekends are another story, Sundays have become so popular that there is a wait for most of the day. We have an ad coming out in the metro times and the eccentric is planning a write up, so we are moving right along. Jeorge also took time to go to Jack's preschool to do snack time with the kids. He did breakfast banana splits with them, and set up a little bar so the kids could be involved in their snack for the day. Jack was really excited to say the least. Jeorge was laughing because jack's friend joseph turned to him and said "This better be good" and Jack's reply was "oh it will be".

Computer Trouble

Jack was online today and must of had some sort of issue because he was talking to himself. I got my cell phone out because I knew he would come to the family room to tell me about it.

Halloween part 2

Here are pics of Jack's other Halloween costume. He was a tranformer by day and Thomas the Train at night.

Jack's new hobbies

Jack has recently developed interests in photography and the internet. I showed him how to use our digital camera the other day and now he is hooked. The other night before we went to bed he asked to take a few pictures. I have added them to this blog ,as well as a few pics Jeorge took of the 3 of us. Also, Jack learned how to access the internet by himself and go to his favorite website to play memory and the various puzzles it has on it. Things are good with me. I feel like my anxiety is getting less intense and I am doing more things everyday. It has helped that the weather has been so nice because i can get out and go for a walk.

Halloween

Jack had a great Halloween this year. He went trick or treating with his friend William who lives down the road from us. Jeorge and our friend Polly ( william's mom) took the boys and they were running from house to house. They only did our street and then went back to William's to play with trains. I stayed home with the baby and set up a candy station outside. I did not want anyone to wake the baby so I posted a Halloween sign outside with a note stating we had a new baby in the house. Jack was exhausted and slept very well that night. Here are is a pic of his 1st costume, I will send pics of his 2nd one later.