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By Ryan DuVall of The Journal Gazette
Rating: * * * * * out of a possible five
Review date: 2/24/2008
Its simplicity is its genius.
Sandra D's Italian Garden in Auburn has just eight tables in its quaint, cozy dining room, and there are only about four people working on any given night.
In a time when everyone seems to think big, chef Bentley Dillinger and his wife and restaurant operator, Sandra, do things a little differently. He works his magic in the kitchen while she handles the front of the house, and both spend a lot of time with their customers. Whether it is Bentley making his rounds to tables to hear how everyone liked the food or Sandra suggesting the right glass of wine, they take the service part of the service industry to heart.
After years as a well-known café of continental fare, the couple recently made Italian the theme. The décor - featuring ivy, trellises and the like - hasn't changed much from the Garden Café, but the menu has. And when it comes to the new fare, its simplicity is its genius as well.
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By Carol Tannehill of The News-Sentinel
Review date: 7/23/2005
I don't get to Auburn very often.
I usually give it a glance when I roar by on Interstate 69, on my way to the Fremont outlet malls, or Lake James, or the monthly antiques market in Centreville, Mich. On the few occasions I have actually exited onto U.S. 8, it was only because I'd been assigned to cover the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Festival, which is the Classic Car Capital of the World's annual celebration of its once-thriving automobile industry.
That's a shame. After you get past the fast-food restaurants and car dealerships that flank the main drag, Auburn becomes a quintessential small town with an old-fashioned courthouse square, an architectural gem of a library and street after street of stately homes and charming mom-and-pop businesses.
Sandra D's Garden Cafe is one of them. On the advice of a reader, my friend and I made the 20-minute drive to Auburn so we could try Sandra and Bentley Dillinger's restaurant. With help from a patient gas station cashier with a British accent, we finally found it at one end of Main Street.
The unassuming little storefront would be easy to miss altogether if not for the bright yellow menu sign and scads of parked cars out in front. Sandra D's is so small - about seven tables - that it doesn't take much of a crowd to fill up. My friend and I bagged the last open table, and a steady turnover of single diners and twosomes kept the restaurant filled through lunchtime.
The eatery's rustic decor is warm and welcoming. Sturdy oak tables and chairs look as if they were plucked out of Grandma's dining room. Weathered fence pickets, oxidized garden tools and trellises covered with twinkle lights and silk ivy effectively disguise the ugly realities of aging walls and unsightly cash register stations. Not my style, exactly, but the farmstead frippery was attractively applied.
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