When I lived in Ann Arbor, it would have been more accurate to say, I lived at Café Felix. I fancied myself a writer and filmmaker at the time, and I sat for hours and hours there - writing, pondering, reading - and sometimes having more than one meal in a single sitting.
It had all started when I needed a location for my student film, "Au Café." I walked by Café Felix, and decided it was the perfect setting for a dreamy, heady romance. They let us set up in the back and shoot for a couple of hours, and it turns out that Café Felix looks pretty darn great on 16mm black and white film.
This was all years ago, and you could smoke in the back - I don't know if you still can, since most of the world has banned this practice of smoking indoors. There was often a very French-looking, white-haired, beret-wearing gentleman there, chain-smoking, who helped with my delusion that I was actually in Paris.
Sometimes, I would go in the evening and order a porter with the chocolate cake, which is still one of the most decadent things I can think of.
The food was always good, and I could always stay as long as I wanted. I got to know a lot of the staff at the time, and the owners are lovely. Glad there's a little taste of Paris in Ann Arbor.
more