Guglhupf

is not a throat condition or a new, misspelled enterprise form the search giant. Rather, Guglhupf is a promising new (at least to me) restaurant in Durham where we ate the other night.

The place began as a bakery and still provides baked goods, but now it also includes a cafe. The setting is lovely, particularly this time of year: a courtyard with an interesting roof overhang surrounds most of the two-level, glassed interior dining space. We ate outside, and for most of the meal, it was lovely. Near the end, the mosquitoes found me and began consuming me, but until then I greatly enjoyed being outdoors.

The dinner menu definitely shows the place's German influences, but the food is not heavy. Everything we sampled was at least good, and a few things, notably the appetizer of two small lamb chops, were downright delicious.

Neither the kitchen nor the service is quite up to the restaurant's ambition, however, as some dishes never came together, and the servers were frequently a bit confused--though always nice.

As it is today, Guglhupf is worth a visit and will deliver quite a good meal. If it can grow to keep up with its menu, it will deserve consideration for a spot on any local's restaurant rotation.