Crema Café Marries Quick-style Service and Old-World Sensibilities

If you spend enough time around Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass., you’re bound to hear grumbling that things aren’t what they used to be. Profit-churners like Starbucks, The Gap, and American Apparel, some say, have lent the neighborhood a feel more befitting a mall than the backyard of one of the country’s august institutions.

Enter Crema Café, a huge and handsomely appointed coffee house and eatery that opened almost a year and a half ago in a space formerly occupied by Au Bon Pain. Effortlessly fusing a European sensibility with a Berkeley-style health-consciousness, Crema has undeniably injected a dose of old-school charm into Harvard Square.

Crema successfully caters both to buttoned-up neighborhood employees who take their lunches to go and to laptop-toting students who can afford to linger. There were plenty of patrons from both groups on a recent Monday afternoon, plus European tourists poring over guidebooks at outdoor tables. Behind enticingly displayed tortes, cookies, and gluten-free granola bars, workers dispatched orders with assembly-line efficiency. Espresso drinks were dispensed from a bar in the middle of the floor while sandwiches were served at the far end. Students repaired to the upstairs mezzanine to read in relative quiet, while those wanting an Internet connection scouted out seats downstairs toward the front of the café. (Crema does not have WiFi of its own, but certain seats are covered by the Harvard Square network.)  

Twenty-five-year-old owners Liza Baer-Kahn and Marley Brush, both from the Boston suburbs, got the idea for Crema from the urban respites they encountered abroad after college. “We saw that Western Europe — especially Paris—had a lot of places where people could sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee before work,” Baer Kahn-says. “We thought that was missing from here.”

THE 411:

Crema Café

27 Brattle Street

Cambridge, Mass.

(617) 876-2700

http://cremacambridge.com

Once the opportunity arose to buy the building, the girls (and Brush’s father, who is also a partner in the business) had the building gutted and a low drop ceiling removed to allow for the mezzanine. “We used a lot of the natural [pre-Au Bon Pain] features of the building,” Baer-Kahn says. The walls are brick, accented with built-in antique cabinets from local furniture outfit Mohr & McPherson. Long, communal tables, like those the girls found in European cafes, are arranged near the front. A few of the desserts are undoubtedly European: chocolate cannelés bordelaise with fresh cherry-orange filling, tres leches cake, pain au raisin. All the baked goods are made on the premises.

The sandwiches and soups that account for much of the café’s business was an afterthought, Baer-Kahn admits. The mostly healthy, mildly adventurous selections are well-suited to the Harvard-area clientele: The sweet potato sandwich ($6.75), with avocado, green apple, sprouts, hummus, and caramelized shallot vinaigrette on toasted wheat is popular among vegetarians, while the roasted eggplant and tomato with mozzarella and homemade pesto ($6.50) quickly became a favorite of this writer.

“We wanted to meet the demands of consumers,” Baer-Kahn says. “Marley and I are into restaurant culture, so we took ideas for sandwiches from restaurants we liked and reconfigured them.”

Crema uses local suppliers including the George Howell Coffee Company (based in Acton, Mass.); MEM Teas (based in Somerville, Mass.); and Iggy’s Bread (based in Cambridge).

Baer-Kahn and Brush have roughly 30 employees, including cashiers, bakers, baristas, and sandwich makers. The owners themselves work six days a week. Seeing that the operation runs smoothly is a lot of work, Baer-Kahn admits—but to customers and the owners, having a little slice of Europe close to home has been well worth it. 

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