Cafe 42

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The best-laid plans of mice and restaurateurs gang aft agley. Only a month ago we got an email from the management of Cafe 42, the restaurant in the Clinton Presidential Center, proudly proclaiming the hire of a new chef, John Hughes, along with his new, high-toned menu. Hughes, who cooked at the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion in 2001-02 and has since owned restaurants in Japan, is still at Cafe 42, but much of the fancy menu isn’t any more. The restaurant has already trimmed four of the six dinner-style, dinner-priced entrees. Still available: a grilled 6-ounce chicken breast and a rack ($18.95) and half-rack ($9.95) of barbecued ribs. Among the now-missing are the bacon-wrapped pork steak, an 8-ounce rib-eye, the Cajun blackened salmon, a vegetarian portobello mushroom steak and the grilled 8-ounce Tuna Steak ($14.95) we tried last week, albacore tuna that was supposed to be “flame grilled to medium rare unless you specify different,” but which came out medium — said so, right on the ticket, as though we had specified it that way, which we hadn’t. It was still reasonably moist and very tasty but distressingly gray rather than pink. There was just enough of a mildly spicy sesame wasabi sauce drizzled over it to give it a nice kick. The side “fresh saute of garden vegetables” turned out to be the dreaded squash-zucchini medley, and a bit oily at that, perked up a little by slivers of red and green bell peppers and black olive slices. Also gone: two of the six gourmet sandwiches, three of the five gourmet salads and two of the five fairly fancy appetizers, including the portobello “pizza”, which we were particularly looking forward to trying. Drat.

Business hours

• Sundays: 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Tuesdays: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Wednesdays: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Thursdays: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
• Fridays: 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The kitchen is always open during business hours.

Related links

• More on Clinton Presidential Center (Feb. 14, 2008)

Heated smoking area? Unknown

Smoking porch? Unknown

Wheelchair accessibility: (1, 'ADA-compliant') *

Restaurant details

Cuisine: Eclectic

Price range:

Delivery? No

Buffet? No

Alcoholic beverages: Beer and Wine

Local establishment? Unknown

Outdoor seating? Yes

Party room? Unknown

Reservations accepted? Yes

Call-aheads accepted? Unknown

Offers Carryout: Unknown

Kids menu? Unknown

Occasional live music? Yes

Payment options

* Restaurants are rated either: Very accommodating, ADA-compliant, Inaccessible.  For more detailed accessibility profiles, check wiredonwheels.com.