Recently, my dining companions and I decided to take advantage of our unusually fine weather and make the trip out to Mendon Ponds Park to feed the chickadees. Halfway there, we realized that we didn't have any birdseed with us. A few minutes later, my 5-year-old dining companion observed, somewhat shrilly, that we hadn't yet had lunch. We zipped past the entrance to the park, and continued into Honeoye Falls in search of food for the birds and for ourselves. Driven as much by need as anything else, we pulled up in front of the first restaurant we encountered on our way into town - a humble little coffee shop on the corner of Main Street and Maplewood Avenue. Sometimes you stumble on a gem by simple dumb luck, and this was one of those times.

Enjoy Cafe may be the best place to grab a sandwich and a bowl of soup in the area, and it's the perfect place to grab a picnic on your way to Mendon Ponds, or anywhere else your travels may take you. It's even worth going out of your way just to obtain one of Chef Paul Koehler's perfectly simple sandwiches.

Take his ham and turkey panini ($5.50 a la carte, $7.50 with one side), for instance. Everything except the mayonnaise is homemade, and even that has been tinkered with to give it a spicy bite. Koehler roasts his own turkey and ham, cutting the meat into thick, juicy slices, bakes his own bread, and takes the trouble to find tomatoes that taste like tomatoes even at this time of year. Like an artist, he builds flavors on flavors, making simple yet wonderful combinations that are entirely satisfying, and ample enough to share (if you can bear to part with even a bite).

Another sandwich was made with a homemade tapenade of kalamata and green olives that added a briny savor, and a bit of red pepper to a sandwich already bursting with flavor. Koehler's take on a BLT ($4.50), while not in any way canonical, provides an exciting combination of crispy bacon, romaine lettuce, provolone, and a basil-and-garlic-jacked bruschetta. Passed through the panini press, the combination of gooey cheese, crispy and salty bacon, pungent herbs and garlic, and even the surprisingly green flavor of slightly cooked romaine was as close to a true panini as I've found recently, and an excellent example of the sandwich-maker's craft.

Koehler lavishes the same degree of attention and care on everything that comes out of Enjoy Cafe's tiny kitchen. His soups ($3.50 cup, $4.50 bowl) are a great complement for the sandwiches (try dipping one into the other and you'll see what I mean), but they are also sensational in their own right. Starting with homemade stock and excellent technique, Koehler transforms simple ingredients into gold. I was prepared for a creamy avgolemono soup when I ordered the lemon chicken, but what I got was even better than its Greek cousin - chunks of roasted chicken, tender vegetables sweated to release every bit of their flavor, a generous squeeze of lemon juice, and lemon zest suspended in a rich and flavorful broth.

Italian sausage and kale soup used the same stock as a background for a pungent, porky sausage and the earthy flavor of perfectly cooked shredded kale (cooked just long enough to soften, but not so long that it entirely lost its toothsome crunch) - this is a hearty soup for a chilly winter afternoon. I'd heard favorable rumors about Koehler's roasted red pepper soup with artichoke hearts before I ever knew where the cafe was. The real thing was every bit as good as its reputation: creamy, with a deep and sweet red-pepper flavor accented with zippy artichokes. It was so rich that two or even three people could easily share a single bowl even if they won't share their sandwiches.

In the past couple of years, it's become something of a restaurant fad to offer fresh-made potato chips either as a side or an appetizer. I hadn't really been taken with the idea, largely because the chips are often too thick, almost always underseasoned, and cooked in oil that would be fine for French fries, which are served hot, but not for chips, which are served at room temperature, making the quality of the oil particularly evident. The chips at Enjoy suffer from none of these deficiencies. They are perfect (a word that I've used quite a lot in the course of this review): thick but not too thick, crispy without being oily, and seasoned with salt, dried chives, and some tangy ingredient that I was unable to identify (or get the chef to reveal to me). Sour cream and onion potato chips are one of my guilty pleasures, and these were the best I've ever had. I was gratified to find out that [name] sells the chips - which he makes in small batches in a Fry Daddy home fryer - by themselves. I'll certainly be stopping by to pick some up the next time I have the hankering.

Portions at Enjoy are generous - Koehler's wife, Gail, who manages the shop, playfully accuses him of being a bit too generous - but you should definitely save room for dessert. Or perhaps you should plan to take dessert with you when you go. In addition to the sandwich ingredients, the soups, the chips, and most of the toppings and condiments, Koehler also bakes his own cookies (most, 95 cents each) and brownies ($2), and makes a limited selection of candies and truffles. His chocolate chip cookies are delicious and buttery. Roughly the same batter is used to good effect in Enjoy Cafe's take on cowboy cookies, a sort of kitchen-sink chocolate chip cookie that includes raisins, oatmeal and shredded coconut. The brownies, topped with twin swirls of chocolate and vanilla buttercream, are huge, rich, and fudgy enough that you may have to resort to a spoon to eat them.

The best dessert at Enjoy, though, is something that can only be described as God's Own Oreo Cookie: a mixture of cream cheese and vanilla buttercream frosting sandwiched between two chewy and intensely chocolatey crinkle cookies. ($1.50) One of these will provide you with all the Oreo fix that you'll need for days to come, but you'll have a hard time finding a glass of milk big enough to dunk it in.

To find Enjoy Cafe in City Newspaper's online Restaurant Guide - including a map, user reviews, and more - click here.

Enjoy

58 N Main St., Honeoye Falls; 624-5830

Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-4 p.m.; Friday 7 a.m.-5 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 8 a.m.-3 p.m.