Mid-Michigan Dining

• 546 Monroe Street
• Detroit, MI 48226
• (313) 237-5370
• No Known Website
• No Online Menu

Europa Patisserie Cafe in Detroit's Greektown

After checking out the Eastern Market and snapping some pictures of what’s remaining of Tiger Stadium for my brother, we headed towards Greektown.  We’re still not really familiar with Detroit, but we knew Greektown was a walkable area and probably had a coffee shop or something for us to relax in for a while.  Luck was on our side, we actually found a metered space about a block from where we wanted to be.  After showing off my parallel parking skills, we headed towards the restaurant area. 

We thought about just going to the Astoria Pastry Shop (review HERE) like we did last time we were in Greektown, but the line was out the door.  We kept walking and I noticed a cafe across the street.  We walked down to the stoplight since I was chicken to jaywalk right in front of the Detroit cop that was walking toward us then double backed to the cafe.

Europa Pastisserie Cafe is on Monroe Street on the bottom floor of the Greektown casino.  There is an exterior door, but there’s also an entrance from inside the casino.  There’s a little marketplace area that has a link to a number of restaurants including a Cold Stone Creamery, a steakhouse, and a Greek tavern. 

Europa Patisserie Cafe near the Greektown Casino in Detroit

The decor is typical coffe house.  There’s a glass counter when you walk in with their pastry selection as well as some deli style salads and cold meat.  We were killing time before dinner and basically decided to have dessert before our meal.  Who decided dessert had to come after dinner anyway?  We had a few minutes to look over the pastry case before the girl working the counter got to us.  We were just going to split a giant cupcake, but I wanted cheesecake.  We ended up with both.  J got a giant chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and a chocolate straw.  I got a piece of plain New York style cheesecake.  Since we were going to kill a little time, J also got a vanilla latte and I grabbed a bottle of water.

J’s cupcake was fabulous.  The pastry case must be refrigerated because the cupcake was cold.  That really helped hold it together.  It was easier to eat the cake with a fork than trying to eat it little kid style.  J was nice enough to share and I had to keep reminding myself that it was her cupcake and I had my own dessert.

I still haven’t figured out why I love cheesecake so much, but I do.  It’s not the toppings either, I just really like cheesecake.  They have the option to add toppings for $.50, but I didn’t want any….I just wanted a plain piece of cheesecake.  It didn’t take me long to tear through it.  It was gone in a couple minutes. 

The thing I never get about cafe’s like this is what to do with the plates when your done.  They give you real plates and cups but don’t have any place to return them.  Do you leave them on the table?  Do you put them back on the counter?  I never know what to do.  I ended up taking them back to the counter because there was a garbage there.  As I was throwing things away, one of the workers came over and took the plates for me.  I guess that works, but what if he hadn’t seen me.  Then what do I do with them?  Coffee houses are so confusing to the uncultured like myself.

Our total for the two desserts and two drinks was just a little over $10.  The wierd thing was the clerk had to run next door to Cold Stone to run the credit card (they’re owned by the same company….clerk said the credit card machine was down at Europa) 

While the Astoria Pastry Shop across the street has more options, Europa Cafe has plenty of choices to statisfy that sweet tooth without the long lines.