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Eating al fresco in Manhattan is too often an unappetizing affair involving chairs balanced precariously on dirty, crowded sidewalks. Not so at Delectica, a small health-conscious café that’s set back from the street and down a few steps. A stone wall and plants shield outdoor diners from the hubbub, and on afternoons when the sun streams down, it’s one of the most peaceful spots to be found in Murray Hill. Locals drop in to read the paper or nurse hangovers over wheatgrass shots, fresh-squeezed juices, and simple salads and sandwiches. Soft challah bread soaks up the tart balsamic dressing that punctuates omelette sandwiches featuring simple, ripe ingredients like sun-dried tomatoes and goat cheese. Among the menu’s assorted sandwiches and mixed greens, a special box is rightly reserved to tout the Israeli Breakfast, a motley assortment of flavors and textures: Two salty sunny-side-up eggs, a cooling cucumber-and-tomato salad, creamy brie slices, a just-soft-enough hunk of avocado, and a cup of bracing coffee on the side. The kitchen takes up much of the no-frills interior, with its shiny metal fixtures and counters bearing rugalach, lemon tarts, and other sweets, as well as platters of grilled vegetables, a nod to Delectica’s catering business. — Kate Appleton

Omelette sandwich on challah roll, $6.95; Israeli breakfast, $9.75