If you want a nice place to sit down and read a book in the Ninth Street area of Durham, and you are perfectly ready to throw around money to get there, Francesca’s Dessert Cafe is perfect for you. With a trendy design, mostly helpful staff, and great food, it surpassed anything I would have expected it to be.

            Francesca’s layout made it literally impossible not to see some form of the many desserts the café offers. The lighting is almost non-existent, progressing from somewhat dark to the radiant Christmas lights found over the cash register. The same applies toward the quality of the walls, which range from those painted in a lavender shade to a faux brick wall on the left side of the shop. This draws consumers in to follow the path toward Francesca’s desserts, which is just what the owners want. Of course, this isn’t the worst thing, with glass cases of freshly baked sweets in various varieties. Not to be forgotten is the assortment of various gelato.

 A casual onlooker might look at the seemingly minuscule selection of desserts, punctuated by the casual and trendy design, and believe that there was nothing in that selection  that would interest them. However, he or she would be most wrong, because closer inquiry reveals that there are many available options on the menu.

              Upon ordering, I realized the wait staff was generally polite. Of course, they had not been hardened by a steady flow of customers. I got the impression that this cafe got considerably more nighttime traffic, as the staff quickly seemed to become overwhelmed by my classmates and I, when we clustered around the gelato and dessert displays before noon.  

I heard the woman at the counter say, “I don’t even know who is first. Line up.” This would have been a perfectly reasonable request if it had not been stated in such a demanding fashion. I ordered a vanilla milkshake, and was greeted with the word “Fine.”  I was asked “Do you want whipped cream?”  multiple times, and  was surprised when I saw it floating atop the vanilla milkshake I ordered. In terms of the actual quality of the milkshake, I was impressed. The only problem was that there was no vanilla flavor in the milkshake itself— it had a slight hint of milk, but mostly tasted like cream, sugar, and ice. The pricing was somewhat absurd, with $6 for a reasonably small milkshake with a large amount of whipped cream.

Overall, I enjoyed stopping by Francesca’s, and any reader who does the same will not be disappointed. This charming cafe gets four out of five stars.