RESTAURANT REVIEW:

Some of my favorite memories from college are meeting friends at this little coffee house in Long Beach called Coffee Attic.

It was a small room, but the owner, Ann, stayed open all night, and the ambience was as warm as the coffee.

Most of those coffee houses and cafes were run out of business with the explosion of Starbucks and other uber-coffee places that valued price over homeyness.

One place that is definitely the antithesis of that is the Monkey House Café. This family-owned coffee house has a relaxed setting that combines elegance and simplicity. The café was formed by Angeli Poon, along with her daughter Rochelle and Rochelle’s husband, Dan.

It was Rochelle’s childhood love of monkeys that led to the theme of the café. Stuffed monkeys are set throughout the store as the trio smartly made them available not only as decorations, but for purchase as well.

Angeli has a background in hotel management, digital media advertising, and retail and designing, using those skills to provide the restaurant’s décor. Rochelle has a bachelor’s degree in restaurant management from the University of Nevada, and Dan has been a restaurateur for years, so the duo worked on the food and beverage aspect of the facility.

The menu is simple, but filled with interesting options for breakfast and lunch.

The breakfast menu has an egg and cheese sandwich with a choice of bacon, ham or sausage on either a bagel or ciabatta. Since the café is open at 6 a.m. during the week, this would be great for someone on the way to work to pop in and grab one of these. Muffins and dessert items are also available.

There are six bagel types, and I am a big fan of the cheese bagel, putting sausage on it with a smear of cream cheese. Healthier menu choices are oatmeal and yogurt with fruit and granola.

Lunch is a little more extensive. There are two categories of sandwiches: deli and grilled.

The deli sandwiches have a choice of roast beef, turkey breast, honey ham, peppered pastrami, tuna or chicken salad. I liked the peppered pastrami and honey ham. There are seven breads to choose from, including multigrain and squaw, as well as five cheeses: provolone, Swiss, American, cheddar and mozzarella.

The grilled sandwiches are equally good, and my favorite of the four would be the chicken breast. Sun-dried tomatoes, basil pesto and melted provolone come on Italian focaccia bread. The basil pesto has a nice flavor with the chicken and worked well with the grilled specialty bread.

I thought the choice of potato salad or chips would be an easy one, but I found the potato salad a bit bland and in need of dill or cilantro. I would order the chips next time.

There are three salads on the menu: a mixed green, Caesar and a house salad. The house salad looked the most interesting with diced tomatoes, cranberries, walnuts and crumbled blue cheese on mixed greens.

Six dressings are available for the salads with sesame ginger, fat-free honey Dijon and fat-free walnut raspberry vinaigrette the most intriguing of the choices.

A popular item for lunch is the half sandwich and soup or salad. The soup rotates daily, and one of my visits a country vegetable was offered. The café website ( www.monkeyhousecafe.com) has a calendar for the soup offered for the day.

The country vegetable had a minestrone-like flavor to it which I enjoyed, but thought there were too many potatoes in it. The spuds cluttered up the array of vegetables in the broth.

The beverage menu is bigger than the food menu. Eleven coffee drinks, either hot or iced, feature items like latte, mocha, espresso and hot tea.

Frozen vanilla latte, chai and mocha are some of the blended drinks on the menu and the espresso specialty blended drinks have items such as peanut butter/chocolate and chocolate and mint.

I enjoyed the selections of smoothies and on the visit I treated myself to a strawberry shortcake. It was dessert-like with the strawberries, white chocolate and milk and was like drinking a shake. It could easily become addicting.

While eating a meal is not required to enjoy the warming atmosphere at Monkey House Café, it is certainly recommended. The food is good and priced well. Whenever I need a little more serenity in my life, I make the visit.

MONKEY HOUSE CAFÉ

ADDRESS: 18862 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach

PHONE: (714) 965-1135

CUISINE: Bistro

SPECIALTY DISH: One of the four grilled sandwiches

ALCOHOL SERVED: beer, wine

ENTRÉE PRICE RANGE: $2.75 to $6.50

FAMILY FRIENDLY: yes, three-item children’s menu

CREDIT CARDS ACCEPTED: American Express, Visa and MasterCard

RATING: *** out of 4

JOHN REGER reviews restaurants for the Independent.