Our Name - The Owners - Our Story - Quotes About Our Food- Our Staff

"NoNo's Cafe Creative Down-Home Dining"
from Focus on Local Business, June 1996

Experience home-style cooking at its best! Welcome to NoNo's Cafe, where Southern hospitality and family favorite receiptes come together for a unique dining experience! The Brewsters report the overall reaction from customers is 100 percent "We'll be back!" In fact, Wilma and Bernie Ruland, area residents, just paid their 18th visit to NoNo's!

"New Homestyle Restaurant Boasts Old Family Specialties"
from Douglas County News-Press, October 30, 1996

Kitchen Manager [Terry] Vigil casually lists off New Orleans favorites and everyday NoNo's fare such as jambalaya, gumbo, blackened catfish and pork chops. "We have hypertension cole slaw that's the best cole slaw I've ever eaten."

 

But the cafe also helps out diners on particular diets by serving light dishes, salads and vegetarian dishes including vegetarian lasagna and black bean tortes. To keep customer service prompt, Brewster offers a limited menu but, he changes it every two weeks to keep diners interested.

Nothing is fried in the restaurant to help keep the place clean. As Brewster would disappear to dispense paychecks, the retaurant staff continually mentioned how much they enjoyed working for Brian and Sonda. If the staff is this happy, just think how the diners must feel.

"Best Sweet Potatoes"
from Best of Denver 1996 Westword,
July 3, 1996

A new mom-and-pop place in the south suburbs, NoNo's roots stretch even farther than that--all the way to New Orleans. Owners Brian and Sonda Brewster brought Denver a group of meals that resound with Cajun and Southern simplicity. Each dish is better than the next--but none is better than the sweet-potato crunch NoNo's proposes as either a side or dessert. Served warm, this brown-sugar-sweet creation dotted with buttery crumbs works well in both capacities--alongside a ham steak with raisin sauce or fresh string beans or competing with exquisite chocolate eclairs for your last bit of stomach space. We think, therefore we yam.

"To Grandfather's House We Go"
from Westword, June 26, 1996

Good homestyle cooking. Friendly atmosphere. Reasonable prices. Sounds like an advertisement for one of those chain restaurants that bills itself as your neighborhood eatery, doesn't it? Yeah, your neighborhood and the neighborhoods of three dozen other cities across the country. But what if those words accurately describe a real neighborhood joint, one that cuts across all trends, a true mom-and-pop place? Say hello to NoNo's Cafe , a two-month-old restaurant that seems too good to be ture--but really exists in a Littleton plaza.

 

We need more restaurants like NoNo's. And we'd have them, too, if diners would stop frequenting those cookie-cutter chain eateries, whose prices might be comparable to or even lower than NoNo's but whose straight-from-a-can quality leaves something to be desired--like flavor. And we'd have more of them still if independent restauranteurs would stop trying so hard to wow us with their brilliant concepts and overblown food and instead just cook and serve decent, honest meals in family-style settings.

NoNo's dining room feels like it belongs in a house. Tidy and slightly countrified, it's been carefully decorated with bric-a-brac from the Brewster's past: a black metal manual typewriter, a slew of farm tools, some photos and memorabilia from Brian's days as a New Orleans Saints cheerleader. Oldies play in the background and the booths have been crafted from church pews sawed in half. And when we happened past the restaurant's office on our way to the restrooms, the open door revealed toy-strewn, child-sized bunk beds, where eight-year-old Caleb and three-year-old Caroline can nap when the duties of host and hostess, which they both perform quite well, get tiresome.

Spicy brown gravy cloaked egg noodles and serveral pieces of flank steak that were so tender they fell apart before our fork even touched them; this delicious pile came with fresh string beans, barely sauté and slick with butter. That side was so good we decided to make an entire meal out of what other restaurants consider afterthoughts. The corn maque choux, for example, proved itself deserving of top billing. Also wonderful was the side of creamed potatoes...We also tried Mayme's macaroni and cheese from the four-item children's menu and fought like kids over the big mound of ziti absolutely smothered with melted, oil-oozing cheddar cheese.

And our desserts had us bouncing around like six-year olds badly in need of our next dose of Ritalin. Although the sweet potato crunch is also available as a side dish, its unbelievable sugary sweetness--compounded by the natural sweetness of cooked-to-pudding-consistency sweet portatoes and the crumbly, buttery topping--might make it impossible to continue with the rest of a meal. But as a dessert it was so good that we found it difficult to focus on the chocolate fudge cake--which Brian proudly told us was a blue-ribbon winner in a contest back home--and the chocolate eclair, which Sonda makes entirely from scratch.Both were deserving of our attention, the sort of confections that had us groaning with ecstacy and longing for more.