In the half hour that I sat at the lunch counter at Maxi's Restaurant in Waterbury, I went from being called “sweetie” to “sweet pea.” To top it off, the waitress who brightened my day with these easy-flowing endearments was named Angie! (If there’s a better song than “Angie,” I can’t think of it right now.)

Angie did everything else right, too, with an assist from the sandwich maker who made my roast beef on rye with Swiss cheese. (If there’s a better cheese than Swiss, I can’t think of it right now. Why doesn’t anyone in Vermont make it? HMU if you do.)

But let’s back up.

Maxi’s, at the roundabout off  I-89 Exit 10 in Waterbury, was buzzing when I walked in at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. The tables were full, so I took a seat at the long concrete counter.

The hostess brought me a menu and took my drink order: seltzer and cranberry juice. Maxi’s has a full bar and local beers on tap, but the little kid eating a stack of pancakes at a nearby table kept me on the straight and narrow.

I scanned the menu, took a sip of my soda, and the server appeared.

“Hello, sweetie,” she said. “What can I get you?”

I ordered a cup of soup and half a sandwich, an $8.25 special.

As she headed to the kitchen with the ticket, my waitress told me: “My name’s Angie, if you need anything.”

Soon she was back with the goods: thick, spicy chicken gumbo with rice, sausage, and some green peppers and onion. The rare slices of roast beef on my sandwich came with the classics: lettuce, tomato, cheese and horseradish mayonnaise.  I asked for just a little mayo, and that’s what I got.

As I finished eating, a man took a seat a few stools away. He placed his order and Angie remembered it was the same thing he got the last time he ate lunch at Maxi's.

"Yup," the customer replied, smiling. “And the time before that, and the time before that.”

Curiosity got the best of me and I asked the man what he orders at Maxi’s. I learned from the diner, Ryan Foster, that it's the Jess wrap:  chicken tenders, cheddar cheese, lettuce and barbecue sauce in a flour tortilla. Foster subs out the side of fries for mac and cheese made with gouda.

"It's just delicious," he said.  But Foster told me there’s another reason he likes to eat at Maxi’s. “It’s a friendly environment," he said.  "You always see friendly faces.”

Angie saw that I was ready to go. “Be right there, sweet pea,” she said, before dropping off my check.

I felt like I’d gotten a promotion.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.

The menu prices at Easy As Cake, a café and bakery in Colchester, end in the number nine. A baby quiche is $3.99; a Greek salad, $7.99; pesto and tomato popover, $8.99, grilled cheese sandwich, $6.49,  French toast bake, $5.99.

The list slowed me down mathematically but revved up my appetite.  I stared at the chalkboard menu for a prolonged spell, doing addition in my head to put together a meal that came to $12 or less. (That’s the Dining on a Dime price limit.)

As I played with food and money combos in my mind, the counter person (and daughter of the owner) waited patiently. When at last I’d nailed down my choice to a hand pie — a house specialty — she steered me to spinach-artichoke ($6.99). I paired this with a bowl of  Cuban black bean soup ($4.99) to clock in at $11.98, not including tax.

The soup was thick and rich with flavor, blended to a consistency of part purée, part chunky. It had a spicy snap — cumin, cayenne, chili powder  — but also earthiness. A hand pie at this sweet little café goes by its central European name: kolache for a sweet one filled with traditional ingredients such as poppy seed, pecan or apricot-prune; klobasnek for a savory pie stuffed with kielbasa, Philly cheesesteak or spinach-artichoke.

Either way, a hand pie is characterized by a sweet and buttery pastry. The vegetable spread in my klobasnek was more accompaniment than equal player.

The afternoon last week when I ate lunch (near closing time) at Easy as Cake, I was the only customer in the restaurant. This got me a window table and a chance to talk with chef/co-owner Jeff Goller.

Goller and his wife, Nicole, opened Easy as Cake in December in the spot that most recently housed Malletts Bay Diner & Bakery. Jeff is a landscape architect and cook; his kolache recipe comes from his grandmother,  who emigrated from Slovakia at age 16. Nicole is a baker and cake decorator who also owns a quilt and sewing shop in Colchester called Sunny Laurel Sisters.

Opening a bakery and restaurant was a kind of  natural progression for the Gollers:  Jeff knew his way around kitchens “backward and forward" as the son of a professional (his father was chef at Amherst College) and a pro himself who’s worked in restaurants off and on for years.  "It's in my blood," he said.

In addition, the Gollers had built a little business baking cakes for people in their home kitchen — a gig that developed after they made their own wedding cake for their September 2018 marriage. Jeff baked the tiered layers; Nicole decorated it with colorful bursts of flowers.

“We merged all our talents,” Jeff said.

The pastry case at Easy as Cake displays those merged talents. The left side holds hand pies made by Jeff; Nicole’s side of the case holds sweets including lemon-glazed donuts, whoopie pies, chocolate chip brownies, blueberry muffins and macaroons.

I hit my $12 limit before I had a chance at dessert. But Easy as Cake was offering free samples of chocolate-caramel brownies the day I ate there, so I happily helped myself to a few of these chewy delights.

Dining on a Dime is a weekly series featuring well-made, filling bites (something substantial enough to qualify as a small meal or better) for $12 or less. Know of a tasty dish we should feature? Drop us a line: food@sevendaysvt.com.