October 24, 2008 -- By Paul Gerald

Let’s consider the word “casual.” It might mean unstressed, or lacking in formality, or without planning, or someone you don’t know well.

In the restaurant world, casual has to be taken in context. So, Stanford’s might seem casual to some folks and fancy to others. What’s casual on Hawthorne might seem filthy to somebody in the Southwest hills.

I say all this because you should know that Cafe Nell, at 1987 NW Kearney Street, is a particular kind of casual restaurant. You can hang out as long as you want (at least at breakfast, which is the only time I’ve been), it’s in a quiet little nook of Northwest, and you can get fed for as little as $3 for toast or baguette with jam, $7 for a basic two-egg meal, or $5 for beignets.

But it’s fancy casual, if that makes sense (and it does when you know it’s the former home of ultra-swank Hurley’s). Even if the prices (a mushroom-spinach omelet with homefries and toast is just $11) don’t separate Cafe Nell from, say, the Cricket Cafe, the décor certainly does. Nell is sleek, with black and white dominating and a red fireplace giving accent, and the mere presence of wine cooler buckets holding bottles of Pellegrino tell you, “We’re not at the Cricket.”

So it won’t surprise you to know that the owners of Cafe Nell, Van and Darren Creely, moved from New York, where they had careers in restaurants and theater. They say Cafe Nell is meant to be an “American brasserie.” I say that simply using the word brasserie implies a certain sophistication; but did you know that a brasserie, in France, is a combo cafe/restaurant with a relaxed setting, serving the same menu all day? Well, I for one had to look it up.

Cafe Nell isn’t exactly that — it has separate breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. But it is certainly relaxed, and the combination of tall windows, high ceiling and several large mirrors make it an open and attractive place. Van Creely told me that the breakfast menu was “light and compact,” intended mainly to “serve the neighborhood.”

“We’re not trying to be the best breakfast place in town,” Creely said, “although people may decide after eating here that we are the best breakfast in town…that isn’t greasy.”

He said they may expand the breakfast menu, and might also add a bit more for weekends, but for now it’s a pretty simple set of options: the toast/jam combo, a hard cooked egg with toast ($4), the two-egg meal (to which you can add bacon or chicken apple sausage for $3), egg-white omelet with greens ($9), an egg sandwich ($6) and oatmeal ($5). The high-end option is steak and eggs at $17.

I had the omelet, to which I added feta for $1, and it was excellent. They were using oyster-edged shitakes (Creely says this will change seasonally) with a perfect amount of chewiness. And their homefries — poached and then finished in the oven for a little crispiness — are among my favorites in town.

Cafe Nell doesn’t impress with a ton of options, at least not on the breakfast menu, which is served until 11:00am. Both the lunch menu, which includes some breakfast options, and the dinner menu are more varied, though a glance at the prices there suggest it’s a little more on the high end after the morning.

If I were suggesting a breakfast place for out-of-town visitors whom I wanted to impress, I might not send them to Cafe Nell. If, however, they were tired after a few days of touring around and just wanted a tasty little something in a casual setting to start their day, I think it would be perfect. And since my office is right down the street, I just might join them for some beignets, coffee, and casual hanging out — “fancy” Northwest style.