Amelia, tucked right into Brightleaf Square, is an amazing Brazillian coffee and pastry shop with gelato too. I recommend the shortbread, puddings, pastries, churros and the big winner is the crepe here. I recommend the plain crepe with fruit, nutella or the Italiano for a more savory treat. Espresso and lattes are great.

My wife and I go to Amelia Cafe after my visits to Duke Medical Center. It is only a few minutes from the hospital. The coffee has been good during our visits---not super-great but pretty good. The pastries have been wonderful. This last time I had two apricot biscotti with dark chocolate partially covering them and white chocolate drizzled over the dark chocolate in an artistic way. The time before I had a napoleon and it was wonderful. Service the first time we went was very nice. The young woman (she spoke with a lovely foreign accent) was very attentive and genuinely friendly. She was very helpful and offered us samples to guide our decision on what to order. This latest visit (tonight) the young man who served us was not attentive at all. He never asked if we wanted the coffee to go or whether we planned to drink it there. So my wife ended up with a styrofoam cut while I got a regular china cup because I told him we were dining there. He never offered to put my wife's coffee in a china cup. No big deal--it didn't change the flavor of the coffee, but it shows a lack of interest in the customer's satisfaction. Same thing with the pastries. He started to put them into a to-go plastic container at which point I told him we were eating there and he took them out and put them on a plate---one plate, not two---disappointing because my wife ordered hers separately from me. It was obvious one pastry was for her and two were for me---so they should have gone on separate plates. He looked bored and uninterested and never inquired as to whether everything was alright, even though we were the only customers in the cafe at the time, and only one other couple came in while we were there and sat down to have coffee. There was one other customer that came in--a woman--but she got coffee to go. I tipped him--now that I think about it I wish I hadn't. The cafe is small and intimate. We have never been rushed. The seating is deep and comfortable and the lighting is intimate and lends itself to easy conversation. One of the two banks of refrigerated pastry cases was completely unlit tonight. Unable to discern if the lights had blown or the barista just didn't turn them on. Either way not particularly a good thing when you have effectively prevented your customers from easily viewing half of your non-coffee products--including the gelato--which is one of the feature items. Amelia Cafe is located in the Brightleaf Square Mall, which is a lovely walking mall with interesting shops and a variety of restaurants. It was originally a tobacco leaf warehouse and much of the original structure is still intact. Wonderful photographs--over a century old--in the interior hallway showing the development of Durham, particularly Duke University and Washington Duke's original farmstead. Amelia Cafe is definitely worth visiting, and I would hope that the next time we go there will be a different barista and both pastry cases will be lit. By the way, I have given the service a good rating because that would seem to be the logical rating if I averaged the excellent service of our first barista and the poor service of our latest.

I went this morning with my Husband to meet a friend for brreakfast at 9:30 only to find the doors locked and lights out. For a restaurant advertising a new breakfast menu, this is not good. We wanted to give Amelia Cafe a try even though it did not have the best of reviews. We ventured over to Parker and Otis and had a wonderful visit.

As far as gelato goes,Amelia's is the best around here! Love this place, clean, quiet, and nice outside sitting.

Smoothie was delicious, sandwich as fresh as anything, little bread balls to die for. I love the woman who owns it--it's so obvious that she cares about what she does. Highly recommended.