By The Books
by Phyllis Richman
Sunday, January 10, 1999
Kramerbooks & Afterwords Cafe
Lamb chops and books may not be a natural match, but the double-cut lamb chops at Afterwords Cafe are as delicious as any novel, and at $14.25 with a green vegetable and a big mound of skin-on mashed potatoes worthy of a Pulitzer Prize, they're a bargain (though the potatoes as a side dish for $2 are more so). Afterwords doesn't fit the usual mold for a bookstore cafe; it's a complete restaurant tacked on to the rear of Kramerbooks, and it has waiter service. The benefit it reaps from its bookstore relationship is that it's open late every day, and all night on Friday and Saturday. It also serves brunch all day on weekends, and offers 15 minutes of free e-mail at the bar – perhaps to check whether Amazon can get you a title Kramerbooks doesn't stock.
The tables are packed tight in this glassed-in dining room. Space is so short that the restrooms are two flights up. Still, it aims for broad appeal, with a pages-long menu that ranges from veggie chili (loaded with fresh vegetables and black beans, $4 to $7.75), to massive bowls of pasta well endowed with toppings ($9.75 to $12.25), to sandwiches too big to handle with a book in one hand, to fancy trendy entrees such as pomegranate chicken. There's a full bar, a long beer list and plenty of wines by the glass for under $6 (though they're not as interesting as the beers). If you want quiet and a bookish environment, come for breakfast or in mid-afternoon; late in the evening there's live music, Wednesday through Saturday. You might worry about the greasy home fries ruining your newspaper and your digestion, but the chicken-and-cheese quesadilla ($8.75) is big and irresistibly gooey, and the hangar steak sandwich, though chewy, is thick and flavorful ($9.75). Desserts are as massive as a Tom Wolfe novel. No wonder this cheery, sunny cafe is a perennial bestseller.
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