Por Frank Sabatini Jr.

Joanne Sherif fell in love with cardamom when she began using it in braided holiday bread from a recipe by Julia Child. With her homemaking days behind, she decided to give the camphorous, lemony spice some year-round play when opening Café y panadería de cardamomo, which happens to also knock out some of the biggest and flakiest croissants in town.

Open for breakfast and lunch only, the eatery captures a Bohemian ambiance resistant to North Park’s ongoing gentrification. Bare-wood tables, multi-colored linoleum floor tiles and a display case stocked with breads and pastries baked in the wee hours of the night strike a homey contrast to the glassy mixed-use North Parker building directly across the street.

Alluring cardamom lands primarily in the morning fare such as sour cream coffee cake, French toast and “bliss cakes,” a fitting adjective to describe these firm crepe-like hotcakes served with honeyed mascarpone cheese and pure maple syrup. It also appears in tea latte (and coffee, if requested).

Sherif uses the ancient Eastern spice in whispers. Too much of it results in a strong eucalyptus-type flavor while faint amounts impart a mysterious brightness resembling citrus. After visiting twice, I’ve detected it best in the top-selling bliss cakes.

Amid the café’s current menu revise, a few different eggs Benedict dishes are in the daily offing, as opposed to weekends only. The seafood version boasted a layer of fresh crab and shrimp tucked between poached eggs and thick, homemade English muffins. I opted for the addition of lobster sauce, a silky bisque that would have tasted supreme if it were less salty. A creamy, jumbo smoothie containing what seemed like a pound of blueberries came to the rescue between bites.

My companion chose the “loaded potato bowl” in meatless, eggless form, but a hearty meal nonetheless. The medley consisted of crispy rosemary potatoes, soy chorizo, black beans, cheese, guacamole and pico de gallo, all clenched nicely by a few spoonfuls of garlicky salsa verde that our waitress provided on the side.

Designated for dinner later that day, I toted home a wedge of “queen’s quiche” incorporating Asiago cheese and applewood-smoked bacon from Niman Ranch. The quiche was undoubtedly regal in flavor but rather oversized and creamier than most for a queen watching her waistline.

With gorgeous croissants winking at us from the display case, we succumbed to a couple of savory choices that are heated to order. One was stuffed with spinach and blue cheese and the other with Black Forest ham and Asiago cheese. Both were extraordinarily fresh and puffy, proving that good, buttery croissants such as these can encase virtually anything — or nothing — and still taste godly.

We also tried the cupcake-shaped cardamom coffee cake, which served as dessert given its cinnamon swirl inside and almond glaze on top. It’s a toothsome come-on to any of the café’s coffee drinks made with beans roasted by Barrio Logan’s Cafe Moto.

The menu extends to assorted omelets, breakfast burritos, pancakes and a variety of sandwiches that include the upcoming “messy grilled cheese” made with goat and Asiago cheeses, scallions and basil. Sherif is also about to roll out her annual holiday breads in mid-October, plus new seasonal salads and sandwiches using local produce from farmers markets.

—Contact Frank Sabatini Jr. at [email protected].