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Review content:
Once upon a time, Caf? Septieme was fun, funky, tasty, and reasonably clean. The staff were terrific, the service quirky but good, the food always good, and the menu consisted of some good buys.
Then it changed hands, purchased by the owner of the resoundingly mediocre ""La Cocina"" further down Broadway. The new guy immediately fired many of the interesting staff, began incrementally redecorating the place toward ever-increasing hideousness, and increased his profits at the expense of food quality, tables clothes, tolerable noise levels, and edible desserts.
At any given time, half the staff mean well but are so badly trained you wonder if they have themselves ever eaten in a decent restaurant. The few good waiters do the best they can to compensate, sometimes with extraordinary style and humor. They're like rock solid scrub nurses working in a doomed public hospital. I adore them.
All in all, it's a shell of what it once was, but still not a bad place to have a drink or five. By all means order food, but be prepared to send it back if you receive an $18 plate of swill. Avoid the desserts, which look ok but are in fact all variations on sweetened, whipped air. The coffee is still very drinkable, though if you get one of the lower waiters you may have to demand a fresh pot. But whatever you do, don't enter the men's room, where the leaking urinal has been rotting through the floor for years. The stench is sometimes truly gut wrenching.
There's still much Bohemian charm to be had, but when that wears thing, check out Table 219, right across the street. You'll find a more coherent and interesting menu, better realized, with prices commensurate with the quality and good service.
I love Caf? Septieme, but then I'm the kind who adores all my exes no matter how badly they treated me.
Pros: Rodney the bartender; funkitude.
Cons: Mediocre food, high prices, ever-declining quality.
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