Dark Horse Coffee

(Credit: Provided photo)

Dark Horse Coffee

Despite its name, Dark Horse Coffee is probably not poised to become the next Starbucks. But that doesn't matter to owner Bonnie Haley. She never wanted a cappuccino blockbuster, just a cozy, safe hangout for friends and neighbors who live around the block.

"When all of us (Maplewood) neighbors get together, we would say it would be nice to have a coffee place to go to. It took a couple years for us to get it going. But it's something I love, I really do," says Haley, who did an admirable job of converting a former bagel shop into a welcoming coffeehouse decorated with colorful carpets and comfortable armchairs that already fulfills its mission as a neighborhood hangout.

The storefront bar faces Aquinas Institute, attracting teachers and students from the private junior and senior high school. The after-school special is a pizza bagel and smoothie for $4.75.

If they don't come with friends, some customers show up with their laptops and work. On Friday afternoons, anyone is encouraged to show up with a guitar or poem for open mike.

If the Rolling Stones' "Wild Horses" or Aerosmith's "Back in the Saddle" is part of your routine, even better, as you can perform in the same room as a very romantic life-sized horse mural. (Please, leave the bullwhip at home.)

Haley grew up on a farm with horses and used to barrel race — hence the equine coffeehouse theme. Suburban interlopers, such as my friend Liz and I, found it easy to slip into the cozy tapestry. The menu is fittingly simple for the setup. Wraps, panini, soups, salads, and daily specials.

Of course, there are coffee drinks, teas and smoothies. What most surprised me is how affordable a lunch can be. Meat-studded beans and greens, thinned out just enough that you could call it soup, cost only $2.50 for a small bowl. A generous wedge of custardy sausage quiche, served hot, cost the same. At that price, how could I not add a mug of steamed eggnog with nutmeg and Dark Horse's own granola bar, a moist, fall-apart mound of oats, brown sugar and dried fruits that was so filling I couldn't finish it. (Liz wasn't much help.)

If I had a horse to bring it home to, I'm sure he would have loved it as much as I did. If there are gripes, they are minor: that the food had been brought out at the same time or in a more logical progression — I started with the eggnog and granola bar, then received soup, then quiche. Somewhere between the soup and the quiche, Liz's salad of greens, apples and honey-mustard dressing arrived. But everything was hot or cold, as it should be, and tasted wonderful.