Harvard Square’s best-kept café secret (from me) is in an out-of-the-way space in the Charles Hotel, back of the beyond, accessible from a stairway near the truck loading docks off University Place. (Also, it turns out, from the hotel’s courtyard, but signage direction customers to it is minimal.)

According to Pronto’s owner, Yazid Berbiche, originally from Algiers and then Marseilles, they’ve been there 20 years! Really? He’s been there 17 of them, and what a generous, hospitable person he is. There are fervent loyalists and regulars at Pronto, and I understand the appeal completely. But people have been holding out on me!

Advertisement

Open weekdays from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m, it seems to cater not to hotel guests so much as to office workers and neighbors, though technically it is in the hotel. The small room is filled with glass pastry and food cases and coffee appliances, but just outside is a quiet, carpeted staircase lobby with small tables and chairs – and the courtyard for use in good weather. 

I must lead with the amazing work of the resident pastry chef, Meredith “Marty” Bragg, who turns out pastries that change daily and seasonally. How many cafés of any size around here have a dedicated pastry chef on the premises,? And one with skill and imagination. From Norwood originally, Marty attended Johnson & Wales and has worked at a variety of places. I had her puff pastry filled with crème pâtissière topped with roasted figs. Wonderful: Full body delight ensued. But even such café standbys as scones and muffins are better from her hands; her happiness is conveyed through her baking. We had a cranberry-ginger scone and a pumpkin whoopee pie with delicious cream filling under better control than most, and whose cake was not cloyingly sweet. Mind you, I hadn’t had breakfast. Even so, I knew these were winning. 

Then there are the sandwiches and panini, soup and salads. With names such as Cairo, Casablanca, Rome and Lazio, the sandwiches and other dishes have ingredients that need to be spelled out (and are). The Colosseum has excellent grilled chicken with arugula and pesto mayonnaise. I took it away promising to heat it before eating and didn’t, but it was delicious at any temperature.

It’s taken me this long to get to the coffee. Pronto is food-forward and the brews, by Jim’s Organic, are fine, especially with the food. As readers may know by now, I’m a light-to-medium-roast person, but that designation is not scientifically calibrated; what is medium sometimes is a bit dark, like this brew, for me. But if you are a milk and sugar person, or just a darker-roast person, it is just fine. Most visitors, all greeted as regulars, came away with coffee.

Regulars did show up, some dipping in with dogs on walks, some workers in shirtsleeves. And then there was the owner of the Charles Hotel himself, who strolled behind the counter freely to pour himself a coffee and move on. He also owns the Liberty Hotel in Boston; I’m curious about the coffee there, but it is not in our geographical zone. 

But let’s go back to this coffee, Jim’s Organic of West Wareham. I was intrigued by the fact that almost all the company’s beans are in blends. Now prepare for a little digression, some of which you’ve heard before: Blends, in spite of the general (American) idea that blends are hiding something or covering up for bad beans, can be great. Single-origin brews can showcase really remarkable complexity in a single bean, but blending is instructive. Blends aim to balance qualities in beans to achieve a better-than-the-components cup. That would mean balancing mellow and acidic, light and deep notes, mouthfeel and aroma.

We all know the basic tastes: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, umami. But when we read the tasting notes on a bag of coffee, they are referential, even poetic, rather than directly descriptive: blackberry, rain on summer roses, sunshiny, silky. And they are always multiple. I’ve been in Specialty Coffee Association meetings in which members were to sip and look for allusions. I was on target only once, an easy one: Ethiopian Yrgacheffe is always blueberry, and don’t you forget it.

When I tasted Jim’s Organic – and I’ll have to go back to try more – I found that the relative darkness of the bean seemed to cancel out the complexity; the darkness itself hid flavor. Its darker roasts do feature the word “smoky” on the label, which is truth in advertising. In the end, just enjoy.

And my advice after this visit? Don’t be a stranger: Go to be greeted and treated by Yazid and to be dazzled by Marty’s pastries.

Pronto, 20 University Road inside The Charles Hotel, Harvard Square, Cambridge (7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday)