Pine Haven Cafe, 1191 E. Foothill Blvd. (at 11th Avenue), Upland
Pine Haven opened in May as the restaurant in the Guest House Inn, which might make this eatery difficult to find if you didn’t realize Upland had a hotel on Foothill. (It’s across from Memorial Park.)
It’s a catering business, begun in 2005, that now has gone public, in a sense, with a restaurant that does breakfast, lunch and, on Fridays only, dinner. Everything is made from scratch.
I’ve been in twice. For lunch, I had the “gourmet grilled cheese” (oooh la la) on parmesan bread ($5.50 as the Wednesday lunch special). My two sides were sweet potato fries and tropical slaw, both good; some won’t like the limp fries, but I did. I wasn’t knocked out overall, but I suppose if I’d wanted something exciting, I shouldn’t have ordered grilled cheese.
I tried breakfast on my next visit, ordering the chorizo huevos ($8), which was three eggs scrambled with Mexican sausage, goat cheese and roasted red peppers. Unexpectedly, this came served atop my choice of potato (home fries) in a bowl. This was really good. I’d asked for wheat toast and the result was large, oval slices of house-baked bread. An impressive breakfast.
The regular menu isn’t online but you can find the cafe’s website here.
A couple of female friends coo over the decor; personally, with its tiled floor and stucco walls and ceiling, the space looked a bit bare and institutional to me, like a hospital cafe. But the food’s good and service is friendly, so I’m pulling for them. As one friend said of the food: “It’s like eating at the house of someone who’s a really good cook.”
