Iz Café now open in English Village
A quick look around Iz Café reveals that you could literally eat Iz for every meal of the week – and still have plenty of variety in your diet.
And this month, Mountain Brook residents will be able to do just that. The Vestavia Hills business has opened a new location of the café in the former Joe Muggs and Yogurt Mountain space in English Village.
Banana-Walnut Bread loaves, small or medium, along with specially packaged all-natural Iz granola line shelves that lead to the counter .
A refrigerated case filled with container after container of chicken salad — and to-go meals with chicken salad, greens, fruit and pumpkin bread— testify to the popularity of the concoction.
To-go fried chicken and turkey meatloaf dinners sit in the case as well, ready to take home and heat to eat.
And then there’s the pastry case.
Almond slices encase an almond cake with fluffy white frosting. A mountain of whipped cream tops lemon cream inside a super-thick graham cracker pie crust. Four layers of carrot cake stack nearly 10 feet tall, or so it seems. Vanilla cream is rolled up in chocolate cake and drizzled with chocolate sauce (roulade is pronounced “roulage” in the South, Reed notes). Decadent bronze-colored frosting is molded around a caramel cake and sprinkled with pecans. Both the Turtle Cheesecake and Peanut Butter pie are covered in a layer of fudge-looking spread with respective toppings.
And it doesn’t stop there. Strawberry Cake, Banana Cake, German Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Mousse Bombs and Lemon Squares are also favorites at the café.
“We are always testing new ideas in our kitchen, so customers love coming in and finding something new to try,” owner and founder Kay Bruno Reed said. “Delicious options are always available for pick-up.”
Cream Cheese Pound Cakes are individually wrapped and ready to serve. Some of the signature desserts are packaged in bite sizes and sold by the dozen. And there are cookies.
“The men seem to enjoy our old-fashioned Pot Roast Sandwich, Southwest Chipotle Wrap and Thai Chicken Wrap,” Reed said. “The ladies love our Seasonal Trio Salads and Tomato Basil Soup. Everyone loves our chicken salad.”
Any good Iz meal comes with a side of their crisp house-made sweet potato chips or a slice of pumpkin bread that tastes like fall (but is a treat all year). And of course both are available prepackaged to take home.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, customers can order and pick up hot family meals at dinner time. The café posts a new calendar each month with the menu for each day.
“It is an easy dinner option,” Reed said. “You may order a single meal or a family meal, which serves four.”
August’s menu included homestyle favorites like turkey meatloaf and chicken pot pie along with fresh takes on salmon, farmer’s market vegetables and spice-rubbed chicken. Dinners are paired with seasonal sides like lime butter grilled corn, corn and tomato sauté or roasted potatoes.
The foundation for each Iz meal or snack is Reed’s family tradition of cooking and entertaining. Reed’s upbringing in the food business carries over into the empire of Iz that she has grown to include a private venue, catering business and a product line — all named for Reed’s mother’s maiden name, Izbell, and a friend’s daughter Issabella.
“Theresa Bruno, who at the time was a partner with an ad agency, came up with [the name] Café Iz, which was a perfect fit for the bistro atmosphere I was trying to create,” Reed said.
Reed is now looking forward to bringing that bistro atmosphere to the new English Village location, which will offer outdoor seating and test new menu items in addition to serving favorites from the original location.
“This is a great little community we can become a part of,” she said. “We want to know people by name and find out what they want on the menu for take-home dinners. We operate more like a little family.”