We found this nice photo essay of the Volunteer Park Cafe the other day. Thanks for the great shots, Tall Poppy.

We’ve written a lot about VPC — and you readers have left a lot of comments. While we were (overly!) critical of the snootiness we ran into at the monthly VPC wine dinner, we want one message to come through loud and clear:

Volunteer Park Cafe is an amazing restaurant.

Our visit this weekend for brunch reconfirmed our smoochy feelings. Delicious, artfully presented and hearty chow in a good-looking and comfortable space. VPC is every bit as good as our former brunch crush, Macrina Bakery — back from the days when we lived downtown. We liked VPC’s hustle and bustle. We liked the shouted orders. The place does brisk business and moves a lot of people through. Those who didn’t want to be moved — us, for example — slid easily into the nooks and watched the flow. We ate a waffle and a bowl of granola. We ran into two groups of friends. We sipped orange juice and a latte. Best of all, we had all of this without getting in a car or hopping a bus.

So, just to eliminate any ambiguity, we volunteer to visit VPC frequently. For those of you scoring at home (or even if you are alone), we’re also pushing them up the list to #5 in our neighborhood biz rankings. The community ranking has them at #24 — we expect that to change as more and more people commit to VPC.

–j/k