Lori’s Oy Vey! Café
Lori’s Oy Vey! Café has been serving breakfast and lunch at the CAMP Rehoboth Courtyard on Baltimore Avenue for 22 years, and I’ve been dining there many, many times a season for those same 22 years. It’s no secret I love Lori’s, but I haven’t sat down to write about it for years and years.
This charming little place, with a lot of outdoor seating plus a few tables inside is welcoming for all and quite an institution in Rehoboth. It’s weathered, well, weather of all kinds over the years and several disruptive courtyard construction projects. And as shops around it came and went, it proudly stood its ground, providing constant comfort food, gourmet sandwiches, salad creations, breakfasts, and a bagel fix for whoever needs one.
So, on the sunny Thursday start of the Memorial Day weekend, I marched into Lori’s and said “What’s new around here that I should taste for Eating OUT in Letters?
Lori was surprised I didn’t order one of my favorites—that famous chicken salad with blue cheese, apples and toasted almonds, or the lox and bagel platter (Yum!), and she suggested the brand-new sandwich called The Cons. On a French baguette, we have turkey, sliced apple, raspberry jam and brie, served all melty and delicious. Was it ever. Alongside I had the chunky potato salad and something I can never resist, a Lori’s deviled egg. The sun was out, the season starting, and it could not have been better.
Of course, with it I had one of my passions: a Lori’s iced coffee. Whether you add dairy and sweetener or not, this is the best iced coffee in town. And I have tried them all. Don’t get me wrong, many of them are really good, but it’s always perfectly brewed at Lori’s. I hear that a coffee place on Reho Avenue is offering a $7 iced coffee. Puleeze. Save a bunch of bucks and head to the courtyard.
Another new item on the menu is the JB Wave, with corned beef AND turkey, swiss cheese, slaw, and Thousand Island dressing on rye. You can get it hot or cold, and I will vote hot as soon as I get back there again to try it.
Lori’s sandwich selections run the gamut from vegetarian (the Simply Delicious, with vine-ripe tomato, Vidalia onion and a bit of fresh basil on any kind of bread you like is awesome) to Meat Lovers (Roast Beef rocks!) with salad sandwiches as well. The aforementioned chicken salad is legendary as is the scrumptious egg salad—have it with sliced tomato on marble rye.
If you cannot decide, try the Mélange á Trois, with chicken, tuna, and egg salads over greens. Great lunch.
If you are wandering Baltimore Avenue early or, actually, anytime Lori’s is open, breakfast is in order, with bagels, of course, but also egg sandwiches on English muffins, yogurt and fruit parfaits, and more. The Whitefish Platter or Smoked Salmon Plate are plentiful and evoking Juniors in New York—only a lot quieter and friendlier.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention some of the other menu items to tempt you. There’s The Fine Swine, a hot ham and brie on baguette, Julia’s Fowl Play—turkey, swiss and sweet peppers, and heaven help us, the Bubbie Kline, honoring Lori’s late grandmother with corned beef and cream cheese on rye. I admit I’ve never tried it, but I will if you will! Let me know.
Lori’s, at 39 Baltimore Avenue, is open during the season 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Try it for the first time or visit again. Guaranteed you’ll say “Oy Vey, that was so good!” ▼