Amazing what a difference a little table rearrangement can make.

Take Susan's 5100 Bistro, the new coffeehouse-plus in the Seward Park neighborhood. The former owners had lined up tables end to end along the windowed wall of their polished little crescent-shaped cafe, then Café Luna, so that patrons sat shoulder to shoulder in two rows. Dining there, though satisfying enough foodwise, never felt intimate.

Enter buyer Susan Henley, who made a few sound decisions right out of the blocks. For starters, she retained Luna's breakfast-and-sandwich menu, to ease the transition for regulars, then added a few other things — burgers primarily — to gauge the neighborhood's appetite. She wisely kept the kids toy basket in the corner and the kids sandwiches on the menu (PB&J, $3).

Susan's 5100 Bistro 5100 S. Dawson St. Breakfast/lunch $ Seattle; 206-721-6308 Hours: 6:30 a.m.- 4:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays, 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays-Sundays. Beer and wine / credit cards: AE, MC, V / no obstacles to access / no smoking. Rating: recommended.

Then she altered the floor plan: radiating the tables out from the curving wall like the spokes of a wheel. Immediately the comfort level soared — enough to make anyone a believer in feng shui. I don't think it's my imagination to say the place feels more reliably peopled than it did before.

Which gives the chef the mandate to keep the pastry case a little more reliably occupied, with homebaked currant scones and warm-from-the-oven oatmeal cookies, thick slices of banana bread and apple cake, and frosted sugar cookies with plenty of sprinkles. Lots of folks use Susan's as a pastry-and-espresso stop (it's Caffe Vita!), waiting for the bus out front or driving past on the way to work.

But it's also not a bad little destination for breakfast on a weekend (when the list is longer than during the week, with blueberry pancakes, Southwest burritos and cinnamon French toast) or lunch on a weekday (panini, cold sandwiches, soup, salads and a few specials).

So far the reach of this open kitchen slightly exceeds its grasp, with some foods overdone, some underdone and one earnestly committed chef back in the kitchen trying to get it all right. It's also a notch pricier than one would expect. But the place has heart — friendly service, a striving attitude.

Currently Susan and company are tinkering with the menu, adding new signage, considering dinner. In light of the changes they've made so far, I'm not the only one keeping my eyes on them.

Check please:

Mixed green salad (small): A nice frolic of wild greens, red onions and Roma tomatoes, with salty croutons and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Caprese panini: Of the four panini (grilled chicken with arugula, grilled vegetables, turkey and artichoke hearts) I chose the caprese because I favor the minimalism of tomato, mozzarella and fresh basil against olive-oiled bread. Alas, this one gilded the lily with pesto besides — which muddied the otherwise crystalline waters of this fine sandwich and rendered the bread soggier than it needed to be. Sigh. The sandwich was served with potato chips.

Special 5100 burger: A herkin' half-pounder arrived slightly too done on a Kaiser roll spread with sun-dried-tomato aioli. (Note to kitchen: You need to spread this more thickly.) The beast arrived with all the usual bells and whistles, to which I paid to add sautéed onions and cheddar. The onions were sweet and peppery, the whole thing delicious. It came with homemade potato salad, which was very good if you have a high tolerance for curry and dill.

Chocolate-chip cookie: If these big guys are warm from the oven, spring for one. Otherwise, save your money; they're not outstanding. Further exhaustive research, however, found the frosted sugar cookies to be terrific and the currant scones, though underdone in the middle, suitably crunchy on the outside.

Itemized bill, meal for two

Mixed green salad (small) $3.50

Caprese panini $6.50

Special 5100 burger ($8, plus 50 cents each for added cheddar and grilled onions) $9.00

Chocolate-chip cookie $1.75

Tax $1.82

Total $22.57

Kathryn Robinson: kathrynrobinson@speakeasy.net