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This seven-table, European-style café could easily be missed if it weren’t for its trademark yellow-and-white awning and wooden bench, which on nice days grants patrons a slice of shade under which to sip iced cappuccino and tart lemonades. Inspired by her mother’s cooking and her father’s catering business, pharmacist Suzanne Amini opened Thompson Café in 1999. (Like her father, who was a mechanical engineer by trade, she opted to also keep her day job part-time.) Known mainly for its paninis, salads, and homemade chocolate-chip cookies (all ordered at the counter), the café is a favorite with Soho’s residents and workers alike. Menu items such as the prosciutto panini, a surprisingly light tuna melt, and the Bresaolo salad made with air-cured beef, arugula, and shaved parmesan are as modestly appealing as the décor. With dried flowers from Amini’s home garden sitting in wicker baskets, painted-gauze butterflies hanging window-side, and a rooster knocker on the door (which tends to sit ajar), the Thompson Café can feel more like a misplaced B&B. Minus the restroom. — Dana Schuster

Prosciutto panini, $7.50, tuna melt panini, $7.50