I dropped by last Friday morning to visit the opening for the new daytime cafe 3hree, at 684 Belmont Avenue in Springfield’s Forest Park.
While I couldn’t quite make it for their 7:00 am opening time, I was pleased to find out that this eatery operated by three men from Los Angeles actually serves breakfast right up until near closing time, 3:00 pm Tuesdays through Sundays. The men (pictured above, from left, Tony Navarro, Ray O’Dell, and Joseph Jester) relocated within the past year to a historic home on Marengo Park not far from the restaurant, where they incidentally participated in the Springfield Preservation Trust’s recent home tour.
The restaurant is located in a small cluster of stores most easily recognized as the building that houses Bamboo House, a Vietnamese and Szechuan restaurant. Before 3hree Cafe moved in, a breakfast and lunch Forest Park Grill had taken the same spot. The new digs offer tables and cushioned chairs outside with big, handsome, free-standing umbrellas inside a fenced-in terrace.
The interior is a refreshing respite from the steaming pavement on a hot day. Owner Joseph Jester told me a little about the restaurant and how it got its name, which is pretty simple: three guys started it.
“We’re all from L.A.,” Jester told me. “Tony and I lived there our whole lives. Ray was from Nebraska, but he’s lived in L.A. for the last nine years. So this whole thing is new to us.”
Jester explained that he has been in the hotel business for about 25 years. Navarro has as well, along with years of experience as a manager at the Sony production lot, as well as running a bed and breakfast for a while. “Ray was a personal chef,” Jester said, “so he is the cook.”
In looking for a restaurant, he said, they liked the location on Belmont Avenue after investigating a few options. “We want to stay in Springfield,” Jester said. “It’s close enough to home, and we like East Longmeadow, Longmeadow and Forest Park.”
“We’re excited, we’re happy to be here,” he continued. “We love Springfield; we love everything about the people here, they’re fantastic, and we couldn’t be happier.”
“Tell me about your menu,” I said.
“It’s all Ray’s creation,” Jester replied. “We decided, when we were going to do the cafe, that we didn’t want any more diner food, because there’s plenty of diners here, and there’s plenty of places to go. So we wanted a little more upscale—not stuffy, but just a little more upscale. So it’s all Ray’s creation, and stuff that we love, during our travels, all of our sort of favorite things that we couldn’t get to eat here, that we love to eat.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like chiliquillas [pictured at right], or the chorizo and eggs,” Jester said. Chiliquillas are tortilla strips fried, and then scrambled with eggs, sort of a Mexican dish [$8.95]. And then the chorizo and eggs—the chorizo is Mexican sausage, and it’s ground up and scrambled with the eggs [$8.95].”
Jester said that coming from L.A., it’s been hard to find such Mexican staples as chorizo, a seasoned sausage very common in California and certainly further south on the east coast. “We found this Mexican food vendor in Hartford, and we just lit up and went crazy, because we found authentic Mexican chorizo.”
“Pasta Mamma is one of our favorites from L.A.,” he continued, “it’s sort of a pasta mixed with scrambled eggs.” The dish includes Italian sausage, tomatoes, basil, and a sprinkle of parmesan cheese for $8.95.
“Roland’s Oats—I call Raymond Roland, it’s just sort of his nickname—so that’s his famous homemade oatmeal, which is really, really good,” Jester said. For $6.50, and an extra ten minute wait for this made-to-order dish, you get not just the oats but also warm caramelized bananas, raisins, and walnuts mixed in along with vanilla soy and cinnamon.
“And then Tony’s recipe for the breakfast bread pudding, that’s sort of a thing he’s been making for years and years at home.” For $6.95, choose either caramelized bananas or an apple topping. “So just sort of a mix of everything that we love and have had over the years.”
For lunch, Jester highlighted 3hree’s Chinese chicken salad for $8.95, which the menu describes as romaine lettuce, chunks of herb-roasted chicken breast, pasta, mandarin oranges, toasted almonds, and green onion topped with their own ginger-sesame dressing. He also pointed out their cabbage burger for $7.95, which sits in the glass case ready to be warmed. “It’s chopped up, mixed cabbage with [seasoned] ground beef baked in [potato bread]. It’s amazing. We warm it up, and serve it. It’s delicious.” Add cheese for 50 cents. Hungry yet?
In addition Jester mentioned the croque monsieur ($9.95), which is thin sliced ham topped with gruyere cheese and broiled; beet salad that even non-beet-fans can enjoy ($6.95), and white chicken chili ($6.95). “And the pozole, another Mexican dish,” Jester added, “sort of a hearty Mexican soup. It’s delicious.” Served only on Sundays, this dish for $6.95 includes roasted beef, hominy, shredded cabbage, radishes and cheese.
“And then the desserts are a mix of everything,” he said. There are chocolate chip cookies for $1.50 each, pumpkin pie, carrot cake, red velvet cake and chocolate Kahlua cake for $5.95 each, or brownies for $2.95. There are also various baked breakfast goods like muffins, cinnamon rolls or croissants starting at $2.25.
“I stay out of the kitchen, because I don’t cook,” Jester said. Why should he, surrounded with this kind of stuff every day?
“You do hospitality,” I ventured. “And what about your hours? You’re open seven to three. You’re closed Mondays.”
“Yeah, and there’s not a lot of Sunday places here, so we expect that to be one of our busy days,” Jester answered. “That was one of our favorite things to do, go to breakfast on Sundays, and when we came out here, we were like, oh my God, what do you do on Sunday mornings?”
At 3hree Cafe, Jester told me, breakfast is served all day. “Our motto here is we’re just easy; if it’s not on the menu and we can make it, if we have everything here, we’ll make it. Just sort of go with the flow. We started with this menu, and we’re going to see what sells, what people like, what people don’t like, and then we’ll change it if we need to, and add and delete.”
Jester said that they’re getting fruit and vegetables from AC Produce on Main Street in the South End. “Ray does all the food buying. And Belle Rita [Novak] makes the brioche, for the eggs. We’ve been going to the farmer’s market every week. That’s all sort of Ray’s thing, I don’t really get too much involved with that.”
“What’s your coffee?” I wondered aloud, after a patron approached the counter and requested a 50-cent refill.
“Actually, we’re really excited about the coffee,” Jester said. “It’s called Grounds for Change, and it’s out of Seattle. It’s all fair trade, shade grown. We wanted sort of a heartier coffee and we were a little surprised because people on the west coast like rich coffee, and I thought it would be the other way around with people back here, because of the cold weather—that people would like a heartier, richer cup of coffee. But it’s the total opposite.”
I said, “Don’t you think it has something to do with what people are offered, what’s available?”
“Maybe,” he responded. “One thing we decided, we want coffee with some body. So we have a medium and a dark [roast] and we don’t do a light.”
“I like strong coffee myself,” I said. “May I have a cup of the dark? I’m going to order some food, too.”
“Absolutely,” Jester said, explaining that 3hree will eventually sell bags of the coffee in the restaurant. “We’re going to push them pretty strongly. We love the coffee, and it’s something new to the area.”
“Another thing we’re trying to do is be as environmentally friendly as possible,” he continued. “Our to-go silverware is all biodegradable. It’s all made of corn, actually, it’s pretty cool. It’s kind of strange, it looks like plastic, but it’s all made of corn. Isn’t that crazy? They’re all biodegradable. So we’re trying to get everything that’s environmentally friendly. Not everything is available yet, but as much as we can. Which sort of makes sense out here in such a beautiful place, that you want to preserve the nature.”
“I think that’s an important feature for businesses to work on. It’s meaningful to the consumer,” I said.
“It’s meaningful to us,” Jester said. “We sort of do it because we support it, and we feel good about it.”
Perusing the menu again, I asked Jester what he recommended for my late breakfast.
“My two favorite things are the chiliquillas and the chorizo and eggs,” he said, “I think because they’re so new to the area. Chorizo is a little bit spicy, and so if you don’t like that sort of spicy sausage thing, then it might be a little rich.”
“I’ll try the chiliquillas,” I replied, not feeling particularly adventurous, and sensing a plunge in my blood sugar.
Obviously well-practiced at hospitality, Jester said, “The chiliquillas are really good.” And he was right.
“Are you going to expand some vegetarian options?” I asked him. “Maybe do some tofu?”
“Yeah, because I’m a big tofu fan,” he said, ringing me up. The total for my breakfast—food and coffee—came to $11.13. “All the coffee fixings are back there, and the ice water. We also have soy milk in the back if we don’t have the soy out.”
“The ice water looks really good!” I exclaimed mildly.
“Yeah, it is good,” Jester agreed. “You know what’s strange? I’ve done this water a couple times. I drop lemons and the limes in there, and the limes sink, and the lemons float. I don’t know why. It’s the weirdest thing.”
“It’s food art,” I said.
See all the photos from my visit to 3hree Cafe here. 3hree can be reached at (413) 733-3332. Hours are 7:00 am to 3:00 pm, Tuesday through Sunday, 684 Belmont Avenue in Springfield.
