Colborne Street Cafe's Demise

Yesterday my cousin and I decided to go for a walk in downtown Oakville. It was warm and sunny, and I had some time to kill before a job interview. I decided it was best if I grabbed a bite to eat before my interview, so we headed to an old favourite, Colborne St. Cafe. A year or two ago, someone had taken over the cafe and changed the name to "Isabella's Pasta Cafe". They had maintained most of the cafe's vibes and kept the same menu so we decided it was still a safe bet, despite it's hollow and uninviting new name.

Upon walking through the door we saw that there had been a number of changes. Similar decor but in replacement of the modest glass bakery shelf, which held just a small, but delicious selection of Dufflet pastries, they had put a giant cafeteria-like vat full of pasta. The pasta didn't look bad, but old pasta? Who wants that. The Lasagna was clearly getting crusty on top (if you know what I mean) and it just ruined the homey vibe that Colborne once had, now it just reminded me of the McGill cafeteria - not even close to a compliment.

We looked up at the menu, and although it had been revamped (again making the restaurant look worse), they still had our all-time favourite the Grilled Vegetable and Feta. The lineup was quite long, but thinking Colborne was the Oakville hot-spot we remembered, we figured this was standard, and it'd be worth it. When it was our turn to order, we asked for the Vegetable & Feta. The 16 year old behind the sneeze-guard scrambled around for a few minutes and came back to tell us they were all out of pitas. All out of pitas? The Grilled Vegetable and Feta is and has been for numerous years Colborne's most popular sandwich. It's a Monday!! You should not be out of pitas. A few moments of despair passed as we tried to figure out what we could order (we couldn't walk out after waiting in that long lineup), fortunately another girl popped up holding pitas!

Now this sandwich really doesn't take much; put the vegetables on the pita, put the feta on top and grill it. Anyone with an IQ above 10 could get it done in less than 3 minutes. Apparently the combined IQ of the three people behind the counter could not finish this in 10! It was the most disorganized display of sandwich-making I've ever seen. Colborne had a team of professionals there a few years ago consisting of an adorable red-head, who I believe went by Phee, the previous owner and a team of friendly, and hard-working students. As a regular a few years ago, they remembered my order and they always put in the small amount of effort needed to make each sandwich amazing (it really didn't take much). None of the old staff was there anymore, B had been replaced by some Oakville-mom-look-alike putting on some charming act, and the team of students - likely just there to make some money because their parents won't buy them their third Xbox. Instead of taking orders and completing them, one would take orders, pass it on to a co-worker, who would then pass it back to them when after a few minutes came to the realization that they didn't even know how to make it, and then maybe your order would begin preparation. This is when Kiri and I realized that the long lineup was not due to popularity but a deficiency in quality service. I watched as one of the girls put the vegetables on the pita, lazily spreading it to cover about half of the pita, then putting only a limited amount of feta on, which barely covered the vegetables she had put on. I'm really not one to pipe in, so I just hoped that it would be evened out while on the grill.

When after an eternity of waiting, our sandwiches came off the grill and it was unanimous when we asked for our sandwich to go. Paying too much for our sandwiches, we walked out and found a park bench to sit on. We sat quietly eating our sandwich.
At least I didn't set myself up expecting much. Of course there were bites without feta, and even more disappointing, bites that were solely pita. We sat there in disappointment for a few minutes before I had to head to an interview. Isabella's is definitely not a place we were going to return. The name change really did mean something, this was no longer the sandwich place we could rely on that Colborne always was.

Later last night I felt my inspiration for this post. A wave of nausea came across me - and although it is unlikely due to my lunch, I easily attributed it to the bad experience I had there today.
My cousin and I can say for sure that we will not be returning to Isabella's Pasta Cafe. For the future, I recommend hitting up Boffo's, a fine-food deli that has re-opened on Kerr St. They have the best Chicken Cutlet sandwich I've ever had, and guaranteed not to give you any food poisoning!!