rant: fine dining

[33anda3rd]

Thanks Crowes. I am working on a new project and our dinner menu is locked but we're having trouble getting a brunch menu set. The dishes that chef has put out to taste that we like are good, traditional brunch dishes. A bagel and smoked salmon board. Corned beef hash benedict. Stuff like that. But he keeps bringing us food at tasting that's too chef-y. Housemade biscuits with tasso ham, peaches, a peach/ham sauce, a ricotta schmear across the bottom of the plate, herbs, like 6 other things. Just too busy and fussy. My take on brunch is that it needs not be too chef-y, just make comforting crave-worthy food. We are having a very hard time getting our chef on that page. It's a typical chef challenge, they like to do too much and you have to reign them in. Would appreciate other feedback on what you guys crave at brunch.

[MrCrowesGarden]

No problem. I don't think I'm the clientele you'd probably go after, but I'm glad to give feedback. I do think one, maybe two chef-y dishes isn't a bad idea for customers who like those dishes or those who want to step out of the comfort zone. I wouldn't do more.

[thrill]

More than anything, the thing that separates great brunch spots from average is quality of ingredients and preparation. Simple, satisfying, with great ingredients is the way I like to go at brunch.

[33anda3rd]

More than anything, the thing that separates great brunch spots from average is quality of ingredients and preparation. Simple, satisfying, with great ingredients is the way I like to go at brunch.

Yeah, me too.

[lukethedrifter]

First, thrill is right. Second, i feel like at some point your returns start diminishing with too many descriptors.
Also think it’s a good idea to limit the chef-iness to maybe one additional ingredient beyond the usual comfort stuff. But some people love all the fluff. Place in TO had duck confit French toast. Didn’t try it but was very tempted.
I like to savory breakfast strudels and savory bread puddings. My wife makes really killer ones. Lots of different angles you can go there.
Don’t [expletive] up the potatoes. Half & Half has the blandest potato chunks possible. So odd. One place in TO had similar style but lightly crispy on outside, creamy potato goodness on inside. Make em right.

I’ve thought a place should consider offering sunny side up eggs different ways. Fried hot with crispy edges; really slow where they come out almost poached; traditional. Sort of gimmicky but very much not (i’ve experimented quite a bit)

[thrill]

Sometimes I like to impress at breakfast so I bought this: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Bad-Breakfas ... +breakfast

V good stuff ranging from fancy to simpler. All really good so far.

[lukethedrifter]

I know where you can find the perfect biscuit. I’m not kidding.

[MrCrowesGarden]

We've all been to Popeye's before.

[thrill]

Yeah they have those and also red lobsters pretty much everywhere.

[33anda3rd]

Don’t [expletive] up the potatoes.

He's running them through a robot coupe with a bit of onion to shred them, then binding them with a bit of egg and potato flour, forming them out on a sheet pan, then cutting them into triangles and deep frying them. They taste, in the very best possible way, like something I absolutely love: McDonald's hash browns. They're marvelous. Little ramekin of housemade ketchup on the side.

This is kinda what I'm saying. We ask him to make straightforward stuff for brunch, and when he does something like the hash browns he knocks it out of the park. His tortilla espagnole is dynamite. He did a corned beef hash benedict that was out of this world.

But then he'll put up a dish that's buttermilk biscuits with tasso ham, a schmear of whipped vanilla ricotta over the bottom of the plate, this brunoise of peaches in a peach and tasso ham fat vinaigrette, some chives, and like four other things I'm forgetting and it's just like dude you don't need 6 of these things on the plate to show some hungover person who doesn't give a [expletive] how many different ways you can use a peach.

I ask about the chicken fried steak because I hate it. Not just the one chef put up today, but the dish in general as a lunch-time meal. Too heavy. I don't want, at 1pm, to feel like I just melted into my chair under the weight of a food coma. I'd rather have a grilled skirt with a couple overeasy or sunnyside up eggs, some of those hash browns, maybe a bit of toast or an english muffin. The idea of a heavily breaded cutlet smothered in black pepper gravy in the middle of the day is unappealing to me.