Since hitting the Wilton restaurant scene earlier this year, Café Ruche has made a splash with healthy, creative cuisine for diners of all ages. In addition to sandwiches and salads that are very popular, their variety of French-style crepes–both sweet and savory–have won raves.
Not only is the café open for breakfast and lunch seven days a week, it’s also handling an expanded menu for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, and has introduced outside dining on the patio. Now, owner Barbara Chopin is adding a new genre of dishes to the menu that she hopes will make Café Ruche even more of a weekend dining destination for families–San Diego street-style tacos.
“A taco is like the perfect food–there’s protein, veggies, some queso bianco and beans, and yummy flavors–and you can pick them up and eat them with your hands. What more could you want?” she says.
She’s added swordfish, steak, chicken and veggie tacos to the menu, and because they use corn tortillas, the new dishes are gluten free, Chopin says. They’re a different take on tacos, inspired by the soft-shell, street-style tacos popular in San Diego that Chopin loved from her days traveling to the California city for business. “They’re real authentic, and very casual, not like the hard-shell Old El Paso taco shell.”
The menu addition is one more thing that Chopin hopes will encourage families to look to Café Ruche as a good alternative for family-friendly dining on the weekends, with options that kids will like as well as some more sophisticated dishes for parents. Plus, the restaurant offers wine, cocktails, margaritas and their special homemade sangria.
“It’s a great way to start the weekend,” she says.
Putting her business background to good use, Chopin has also found that the Wilton market has embraced the variety of dishes she has been able to put together on her menu.
“With restaurants these days, you need to be less cuisine oriented and more demographically oriented. We hit the nail on the head for our lunch crowd, and we know Wilton has kids that will love tacos,” she says, adding, “They’ve gone over very well the last two weekends.”
The leap from crepes to tacos isn’t that outrageous, from Chopin’s vantage point. “It’s just another pancake!” she laughs.
Café Ruche is located at 101 Old Ridgefield Rd., in the shops near Marly’s and Subway. They’re open M-Th 8 a.m.-4 p.m., F-Sat 8 a.m.-9 p.m., and Sun 10 a.m.-4 p.m..