Telegraphe Cafe

Telegraph Cafe is another small business I wouldn't have randomly stumbled in to if it wasn't for the summer of the great Paze promotion, but I was charmed by it instantly when I entered.

*If you are unfamiliar, Paze is a digital wallet system (like Paypal or Google Pay) that you can use to check out with some merchants.  In the summer of 2026, when they launched, they had a promotion with most major credit cards and banks to give you back a $10 credit, up to 10 times, per card/account, if you spent $10 and paid with Paze.  One of their launch partners was Clover, the company behind many restaurant POS systems, so if you ordered online through their Clover storefront, and paid with Paze, you got $10 free (over and over, again, 10 times per card/account).  Tax, tip, it all counts towards the $10, so you could get something <$10, and just tip up to the $10 to trigger the credit.  I love a freebie, and I love excuses to check out places that I wouldn't normally stumble into, so I used Clover and Paze to go on little missions every weekend, gettings $100s in free food along the way.

Setting

"Welcome to Telegraphe Cafe,your cozy neighborhood cafe! Whether you’re looking for a place to catch up with friends , relax with a good book, or get some work done, we’ve got you covered."

I found the cafe very charming, ambiance wise.  Located of a side street, and every time I visited it had such great coffee shop vibes, with folks sitting and working at laptops, pleasant music playing.  I could see it being a great neighborhood place, just as they say.  And they seem to welcome lingering.

Counter.

The space is pretty small, with a counter for ordering, a back prep area, upper level storage, and a few seats along the window on barstools.

Seating.

There were also a few small tables.  No outdoor seating.

Food

Telegraphe is both a coffee shop and a cafe, and they do have a back kitchen with real food.  The breakfast menu has a large lineup of egg sandwiches, plus standard bagels, granola, yogurt, overnight oats, pastries.  Lunch is sandwiches, soups, and salads, and I appreciate that they offer half sizes.

Pastries.

The pastries look better than average for a coffee shop. They do have a house made look to them, or at least not mass produced, although I'm not sure if they really do make them there, I doutb it.

The lineup had an assortment of croissants,danishes, and muffins, plus several kinds of cookies in jars along the counter.

Spinach Turnover.  $5.60. 

In non-standard Julie behavior, I opted for a savory pastry, the spinach turnover.  I ordered it thinking it was going to have spinach and ricotta inside.  Or maybe spinach and mozzarella.  I was quite surprised when I warmed it up to discover ... woah, it was like spanakopita inside.

Spinach Turnover: Inside.

It was quite generously filled, and the filling was quite flavorful but ... I don't care for feta, and these just weren't flavors I was excited by.

The pastry itself was nicely flaky, and almost seemed like it might be a bit whole wheat?  It had some grains and heartiness to it I wasn't expecting.

Overall this was a bit unique, and well made, but not the flavors I like much.  Low 3/5.

I handed it off to my mother who was visiting, who does like feta, spinach, whole grains and she didn't care for this either, so ... shrug.

Some Kind of Cookie. $3.50.

Of course I wanted something sweet too.

What I ordered (from the menu, online): "White Chocolate Cookie & Oatmeal chocolate cookie" ... which I hoped meant they had both these kinds and I'd get one of them, or perhaps that it was one kind of cookie with all these things, or even one of each.  I wasn't entirely sure what I'd be getting, but I did expect at least one of white chocolate or oatmeal to be present.

What I got: this.  A rock solid, like, not just crispy, but hard puck of a non-oatmeal cookie with chocolate hunks in it and chocolate coating.  Oh, and nuts, bits of walnut. Good thing I do not have a nut allergy.  No white chocolate.  No oatmeal.  And a very, very stale hard cookie.  The base flavor was actually ok, but, just not at all what I ordered, and way too hard.  The chocolate coating wasn't particularly good either, which is a shame, as the dark chocolate hunks inside were decent.  2/5.

Looking at the menu on their website, not the online ordering page, they have "Double Fudge Chocolate Chip", perhaps that is what it was?