Inexpensive and generally satisfying lunches can be taken in the pubs, which usually serve soups, sandwiches, mussels or oysters, ham or chicken salad platters, perhaps pot pie, quiche or pizza.

Outside the shop's entrance on Van Duzer Street, a bar for the under-40 crowd called Martini Red has opened, along with a host of antique stores and a brunch spot called Vida that serves quiche, frittata and pâté.

They serve brick-oven pizzas and quiche, as well as sandwiches and home-made ice cream, but they're best known for their milkshakes and superb coffee - the cappuccinos and espressos are simply fantastic.

The Pit, (607) 547-9611, in the basement of the Tunnicliff Inn at Main and Pioneer Streets is a tap room that serves quiche for $6.95 and hamburgers for $5.85.

The Shepherd's Inn (67 Main Street) serves hamburgers, salads and quiche for lunch as well as dinners of several courses.

Attached to the snack is a café serving quiche, salad and cooked meals which are slightly more expensive than at the snack.

It may have been the first restaurant in America to serve quiche, but the Philip Johnson design looked nothing like a brasserie, with its table-height bar, Picasso plates on the walls and modern woodwork.

Some of the old red brick row houses had been sandblasted and festooned with hanging plants, so that they looked like the kind of restaurant where they serve carafe wine and quiche.

I served fresh fruit, cereals, bagels, croissants, cheeses, quiche, fish, cake and hot chocolate.