All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel
{Friday}
work from home | get Autumn at 5pm | left overs | Grimm | popcorn | bed
{Saturday}
dog park | haymarket | Petsmart | Price brought Autumn to NH to visit family & exchange stored breast milk | home doing work & chores | tacos for dinner | bed
{Sunday}
fruit for breakfast | belated b-day brunch with Chris | shopping | make dinner and lunch prep | Price gave Autumn a bath | work from home for a few hours | bed
As part of my Monday Munchies series, I will feature a different eatery for a review on the first and third Monday of every month. Hope you enjoy!
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Oh man, I love going to Local 149.
I love the food. I love the drinks. I love the decor.
I’ve gone for work outings. I’ve gone for birthday celebrations. I’ve enjoyed dinner and drinks. And for brunch and drinks. Ah, drinks. 🙂
I had been thinking about going to Local 149 for the past month. I was craving a good brunch and had been thinking of Local 149 since I had gone there back in October with my mom when she surprised me when we came up from Florida for my baby shower.
On this recent brunch outing Price and I enjoyed some Bloody Mary’s. The Bloody Mary ($10) has a homemade horseradish tomato juice base. They came garnished with an olive, a slice of pepperoni, and a peppadew pepper. Their Bloody Mary is really good but I like mine with more lemon juice- just my personal preference.
I am looking forward to the next time I go and trying the Irish Breakfast ($10). The Irish whiskey, cereal milk, amaretto, and cold-brewed coffee sounds irresistable. I just love whiskey and amaretto. And combined… sign me up!
I had suggested that we kick off brunch with the Mac and Cheese Fritters ($7) but Price suggested the Crispy Beignet Bag ($7). Being so close to Mardi Gras I was sold on the idea of some beignets!
These are not like the beignets we had at Cafe Du Monde in New Orleans. Those were big pillowy beignets, but these were little beignet nuggets. Very different than what we were expecting but still very good!
As soon as these little beignet nuggest are out of the fryer they were tossed into a bag with a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Then to take thing to the next level, they were given a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar before being served to you. So yummy.
Price had an order of the Chicken and Waffles ($17). A huge crisp sweet waffle made for a great pedestal for some crispy, crunchy fried chicken. The chicken breast, thigh, and drumstick were all very juicy and tender. But what tops it off is that the Chicken and Waffles are served with warm maple syrup, a warm nutmeg butter, and apricot jam. The nutmeg added a bit of spice to the butter.
The best way to eat this is to cut a piece of syrup drenched waffle, then put a bit of butter and jam on the waffle. Okay, got that? Then you rip off a piece of chicken and stab your fork through the chicken and waffle and take a big bite. Enjoy!
Now the thing that I had been craving was the Texas in Southie ($12). It all starts with a slice of buttery texas toast that is surrounded with a generous portion of corned beef hash, that is packed full with seasoned homefries.All of that is then topped off with a fried egg and hollandaise sauce. Glorious.
The dish comes with a sunny side up egg but I prefer mine over-easy so I requested that instead. The egg was so runny, soo sunshine yellow happy. Mixing together the runny yolk with Hollandaise and then scooping up some hash and swooping it through the sauce is such a perfect bite. Try it, trust me.
Now that was an awesome brunch!
Be sure to arrive right after Local 149 opens at 11 if you don’t have a reservation, or just be flexible to wait. And just maybe, you can try to snag one of the tables by the fireplace! I’d totally request that when making a reservation.
149 P street
South Boston, MA
617 269.0900
Brunch on Saturday and Sunday 11am-3pm
When Price and I were on our Babymoon in the Florida Keys we found a place called The Stuffed Pig and absolutely fell in love with it for breakfast. In the 4 mornings that we were there we ate there twice. So yeah, we loved it!
The Stuffed Pig is a fun open air restaurant that features down-home fresh cooking. It’s a simple place with plastic chair with a gravel ‘flooring’. Pick up a laminated menu or check out the specials on the chalkboard to select some damn good breakfast or lunch. And be sure to say hi to the cats that roam around the property.
Shrimp & Grits
Grilled shrimp w/Bacon & Cheddar on Grits, 2 Eggs, Toast $12.00
On the first morning we went there I got the Shrimp and Grits. So much food!! I skipped the toast and just dove right into the rest. I took the time to take the shrimp off the skewers and then took the tails off so I could get a shrimp with every bite of cheesy grits and eggs.
I made a friend on the first day. Tigger the cat was very friendly so she rubbed up all against the belly bump and kneaded the napkins I had on my lap. Then sat on my lap while I ate, I think she was hoping I’d share some shrimp!
Price also enjoyed one of the breakfast specials that had a pancake, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, grits, and toast. Basically, a half portion of their World Famous Pig’s Breakast.
As well, they have $2 mimosas and $3 Bloody Mary’s!!! I was so jealous of Price as he enjoyed them with his breakfasts. I figure it is just another reason for us to go back- when I’m not pregnant- to enjoy their great food and very, very affordable drinks!
Sausage and Gravy Eggs Benedict
Of course when I saw they had a Sausage and Gravy Eggs Benedict on the special’s menu I had to get it.
It’s a great combo of 2 great breakfast plates. It was a change up for me since I love Hollandaise sauce so it was a big departure for me not to have that when having Eggs Benedict. But I embraced the change and really enjoyed the special.
As well, instead of the typical English Muffins the Eggs Benedict was set upon freshly made biscuits. They biscuits were really tender and soft. They became a great sponge to soak up the sausage gravy and runny egg yolks. Then a sausage patty was set upon each biscuit to make this super sausage-y. That’s right double sausage!!
The side of homefries were great as they were well seasoned with the onions they were cooked with and from some of the char they had from the griddle. It was really good to mix them into the sausage gravy.
Biscuits– 17/20 pts
Sausage– 17/20 pts
Poached Egg– 22/25 pts
Sausage Gravy– 23/25 pts
Homefries– 8/10 pts
Total: 87/100 pts
3520 Overseas Hwy
Marathon, FL 33050
(305) 743-4059
Mon-Sat: 5am-2pm Sun: 6am-12pm
Cash Only
As part of my Monday Munchies series, I will feature a different eatery for a review on the first and third Monday of every month. Hope you enjoy!
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When Price and I were in The Florida Keys back in September for our last getaway before our baby’s arrival, we enjoyed some really amazing meals. We ate all over The Keys including pool side, stands on the street, and right on the beach for some fine dining. Each experience enjoyable for their own reasons: the views, price, offerings, and music.
On our last day in The Keys we stopped off for breakfast at Hungry Tarpon Restaurant on Islamorada while we were on our way back from Duck Key to the airport in Ft. Lauderdale. We planned to eat at the Hungry Tarpon since we were going to Robbie’s of Islamorada to feed the tarpons there and the Hungry Tarpon is right there, literally. A great 2 for 1 stop!
The Hungry Tarpon Restaurant serves generous portions at affordable prices. And best of all the food is fresh, homemade, and hearty.
Hungry Tarpon
Hash browns topped with 2 eggs, shredded jack cheese, a homemade biscuit, and sausage gravy $7.50
I was stunned when this plate was put down in front of me. It was such a huge plate of food. And such good food too! My hash browns were topped off with 2 over-easy eggs, plenty of cheese, and then the sausage gravy.
The sausage gravy was sooo good (but a bit salty which was the only complaint of the entire place). The sausage is evenly crumbled and mixed into the smooth, creamy gravy.
Hungry Permit
Hash browns topped with American cheese, fresh tomatoes, 2 eggs, bacon, a homemade biscuit, and sausage gravy $7.95
Price really enjoyed his breakfast as well. Sadly, it conquered him and he tapped out at half the plate as well. Maybe it was a portion size? or maybe it was the double meat… bacon and sausage gravy? ha!
Our plates were very similar, besides being different style of eggs, so we didn’t share this time, like normal. But I think that the next time we’re in The Keys (can we pack our bags now?!?!) I’d get the Hungry Tarpon with tomatoes. The tomatoes make it healthy, right?
The best thing about both of our plates were the biscuits. We were both so impressed with the flavor and texture of the biscuits. The tender biscuits were so buttery. They were so light and fluffy and had a nice crumb to them under the crisp top. The biscuits came with some butter but I think it doesn’t even need it they are so good just on their own.
If you are passing by in The Keys then I highly suggest that you stop by Robbie’s to feed the tarpons and have a great meal at the Hungry Tarpon. It will be a great time and you’ll enjoy fresh homemade food. And maybe you just might need a nap afterwards. I’m sure you can find a local beach to relax on 🙂
77522 Overseas Hwy
Islamorada, FL 33036
(305) 664-0535
{Friday Night} work a bit late | home | mom at the house to surprise me for the baby shower | dinner at Red Lantern | bed
{Saturday} up early with Kemper | go to Haymarket | Bread and Butter for Breakfast sandwiches | clean up the fridge and kitchen | lounge around watching Food Network and nap | get ready | baby shower | Kris came to the house for about an hr | relax and organize gifts | bed
{Sunday} up early with Kemper | lounge around and sort baby shower stuff | long brunch at local 149 with mom | naps | assemble the bouncy seat and sort clothing by size | pizza dinner at Prince’s Pizzeria | blogging & mom knitting while we watch TV | bed
For one of our monthly date days I took Pricer out to brunch at The Tip Tap Room here in Boston for their Tipsy Brunch. We have loved Chef/owner Brian Poe since we met him years ago when he became the head chef of The Rattlesnake Bar and Grill. I knew that brunch would be a hit here because of how awesome everything from the The Rattlesnake, and here at the Tip Tap Room, has been over the past few years.
our spicy homemade Bloody Mary with a candied bacon rim. $10.00
Obviously, brunch = Bloody Mary’s. While I love a mimosa, I can thow together some oj and champange/ perseco myself so I go I will order a Bloody Mary 9x out of 10. I’m always just so interested in how everyone makes their Bloody Mary base mix and how they finish off the glass with garnish. And this candied bacon rim was a winner. Sometimes I struggle with a bacon rim because it will be super smoked and I think that can just be too intense for the spicy sharp flavors of the Bloody Mary. So this slightly sweet bacon rim was really enjoyable.
Chef Poe’s blend of fresh breads with breakfast caramel butter $6.00
We started with the Muffins and Stuff to see what kind of fresh breads they offered. The chocolate bread was to die for. To-die-for. everything was incredible really with the moist breast, toasted English Muffins, and crunchy pastries. Plus, there was a caramel infused butter served along side of the bread basket. I wanted to sneak this ramekin into my purse. It was heavenly with its soft consistency and a sweet flavor that had toasty notes that went really well with the sweeter breads.
Corned Beef Hash
Topped with a poached egg $11.00
Price ordered the Corned Beef Hash entrée. It honestly surprised me because 1) he doesn’t covet Hollandaise like I do and 2) he doesn’t love runny eggs. So I had guessed he would pick something like the Belgian Beer Waffles or the Steak & Egg entrees.
So when he picked the Corned Beef, and loved it, I was really shocked. But he really enjoyed combining the in homemade shaved corned beef with the home fries and scooping up a bite of the Hollandaise sauce covered egg. It was that really balanced bite that he really enjoyed. The runny egg yolk was not too intense for him because it was mixed together with the Hollandaise sauce, and ultimately mixed together with the salty meat and crisp potatoes. A real play on texture and flavors.
I think that I have to give this a try next time.
serious noms.
Tip Tap Benedict
Butter Fried Smashed Potato Cake dusted with English Muffin Crumbs, Cured Ham, Poached Eggs, Beer Cheese Hollandaise $12.50
Of course I ordered the Eggs Benedict dish. duh.
I did consider some of the other entrée offerings, but only for a split second since I can’t resist Eggs Benedict and this once just sounded so incredible.
I was really intregeted by the Fried Smashed Potato Cake because I was wondering how it would taste and if it would have a chunky texture. I was thinking of the post- Thanksgiving leftover creations I make up. But I discovered this was not at all like my leftover mashups. (Thankfully!) This potato cake was soo light, fluffy, and very smooth. The English Muffin crumbs on the outside were super fine and a lovely golden brown color. Oh yeah, there might have been some butter going on.
On top of the potato cake was the cured ham, which was just like Canadian Bacon, and then the egg and the dreamy Beer Cheese Hollandaise sauce. I repeat… Beer Cheese Hollandaise. Yep, can’t have a tipsy brunch without some beer in your Hollandaise sauce. Plus it was cheesy too! So it was not like any other Hollandaise I had before since I’m sured to the more traditional sauce that is pretty lemony. The play on the sauce was really interesting. It was really think, creamy and all around amazing.
Under all that Beer Cheese Hollandaise sauce were the loveliest poached eggs. I love when they don’t look that uniform, like someone cut off the edges with a scissor. Besides that they were cooked well. The yolk was super runny and there was not too much (gross) runny white surrounding it.
I wanted to lick this plate clean to get every bit of the egg yolk, Hollandaise sauce and infused oil off the plate and into my stomach. But I had some self control and managed to resist myself.
Potato cake– 20/20 pts
Cured Ham– 18/20 pts
Poached Egg– 23/25 pts
Hollandaise Sauce– 25/25 pts
No side*– 0/10 pts
Total: 86*/100 pts
*There was no side, like home fries or a side salad, which I rate because its pairing is just as important. Also, I can’t just ignore a bad side when looking at a whole entrée. So while there was no side (knocking it 10 points from my rating) it was a hearty enough Eggs Benedict that I didn’t feel like it was lacking, especially with the big potato cakes.
138 Cambridge Street
Boston, MA 02114
(857) 350-3344
Tipsy Brunch: Sunday 10:30am—3pm
I really truly think Brunch is my favorite meal of the day. Anything goes then. Savory, Sweet. Coffee. Booze. Emphasis on that last one.
So when I was invited to check out Bokx 109‘s new brunch I did a little dance in my chair when I checked my email. I seriously love Bokx 109 (see this post and this post!) because everything there is incredible. I’m not just saying that because I got a free brunch. No, I’m completely serious. Incredible.
We headed over to the Hotel Indigo in Newton, MA, where Bokx 109 is located to enjoy our brunch. It was a nice snowy day but this place is beautiful in the summer. I would love to sit by the pool and enjoy a cocktail. Is it summer yet?
Shortly after we were seated a plate of Coffee and Doughnuts were brought over. These were homemade beignet doughnuts served with coffee pot de creme. The 6 doughnuts were served warm with the freshly sprinkled powdered sugar melting over the top of them. The coffee pot de creme was the prefect sauce to serve for the doughnuts to be dipped into. I would have liked for a spoon to have been paired with this dish to be able to eat all of the pot de creme as well as easily eat the chocolate garnish in there.
And then the best thing ever happened… the Bloody Mary cart arrived to our table.
They bring the cart over to bring the This week the Bloody Mary’s were paired with pepperoncinis, olives, pickles, celery, string cheese sticks, and mini Slim Jim’s. Slim Jim’s! I told out waiter that I didn’t like olives so he omitted that from my Bloody Mary.
I could have had 3 of these. I behaved though and only had 1 Bloody Mary.
I was like a giddy school girl telling our waiter how much I love the brunch already and how I love going to Bokx 109. I was also telling him that The Smoke Show special, that I had with dinner previously, was one of was most memorable things I’ve had in very long time. And ta-da! The General Manager brought out an order of the Pear and Mascarpone Sacchetti ($12) for each of us. Price finally got to see what I have been talking about with it’s handmade delicate, sweet sacchettis served with a chive fondue.
Not to already be out done, our entrees then arrived. Price ordered The Royalty ($12).The Belgian Waffle with Crown Royal Maple infused syrup dish was also served with a caramelized banana. The Belgian Waffle was a sweet, airy waffle which was then topped with whipped cream and chocolate balls. The chocolate balls would melt in your mouth as you ate your waffle. Price lamented that while a half of a banana was the perfect amount h wished he had a whole one because it was so good. The banana was caramelized and had a crunchy sugary layer, similar to a creme brule. All of that was topped with the strawberry compound and the boozy maple syrup that really had a kick!
You can get a basic waffle for $10 at the local dinner or you can get a The Royalty for $12. It’s an obvious choice for me with its layers of flavor and boozy maple syrup.
I debated ordered which Eggs Benny dish to order and ‘settled’ on the Green Eggs and Ham Eggs Benedict Entree ($10). Oh dear lord. This was served with local Prosciutto, grilled slices of Ciabatta, basil oil, sous vide eggs, and a bearnaise sauce. Between the 2 eggs were thick cut sliced potatoes that, like the ciabatta, served as a great vehicle to scoop up the runny egg yolk and bearnaise sauce. Don’t even get me started on those eggs. I had never had sous vide eggs before so this was a fun change-up from the typical poached eggs. There was a moment of silence after I broke open each egg as I watched the bright yellow yolk come running out. True Bliss.
On our way out we talked with Chef Stephen Coe and thanked him for the incredible brunch we had. We told him how all of the food was amazing and how we, as usual, had fantastic service as well. I told him that the only thing I would change to make brunch better was to serve a stronger serrated knife to make cutting the grilled ciabatta easy. You know, to be able to get the food into your mouth faster…
Price and I are constantly talking about the next time we are going back to brunch. The service and quality of food is always topnotch. Plus the prices for the entrees are very reasonable for the care put involved in each dish.
I’ll be back for their Bellini Cart next!
**While I received this complimentary brunch from Bokx 109, these options are entirely all my own. Plus I did tip well, I’m not an animal!**
When I was in high school I used to live off of apple butter and bagels. Because school let out at various times depending on the rotating daily schedule I would sometimes get out pretty early by the time I was a junior and senior so I would just wait to eat lunch at my boyfriends. His mom always had bagels around so I’d toast one up at have it with apple butter. I loved just how flavorful the apple butter was. I would occasionally drive to the next town to visit a farm store where I could get their apple butter. It was a real addiction I tell you!
When Musselman’s contacted me about using their Apple Butter in a recipe and having a giveaway I knew I had to accept. While my apple butter package was on it’s way, I kept thinking about different recipes to use with the apple butter because possibilities are endless. I kept going back to their site for inspiration as well as go through old magazines. I was tempted to make Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie but when it came down to it I kept thinking about something for breakfast. I thought about their Monkey Bread but decided that I would adapt one of my favorite breakfast recipes instead. I had recently adapted the Strawberry Almond Stuffed French Toast I had previously made using canned pumpkin. It turned out so well that I decided to swap the pumpkin for the apple butter and wah-la!
This might look intimidating because you have to cut the bread to form pockets but it is super simple and by creating this lovely pocket you get to full the bread with this great apple butter filling. I loved how I didn’t need syrup for this french toast.The sweetness and flavor of the apple butter is perfect for this without getting covered in syrup. It is perfect for a leisurely breakfast or for one on the go. Since this recipe makes so many servings I freeze the cooked french toast slices on a baking sheet and then I wrap them up to enjoy later. I just take one out of the freezer the night before and defrost it in the fridge Then when I am getting ready in the morning I toss the wrapped french toast in the oven to warm it up. Good to go!
Serves 6-8
Ingredients
Process
And now the good stuff… the GIVEAWAY!
You can win
To Enter:
Leave a comment telling me how you would enjoy a jar of apple butter.
Extra Entries:
Spread the word- Tweet: “I want to win a @Musselmansapple’s Package that includes a jar of Apple Butter & a Spurtle from @iamahoneybee http://wp.me/pzEAP-2Li”. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me that you did.
Follow @Musselmanapple’s on twitter for updates and to stay connected. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me that you did.
Contest Ends Wednesday the 7th at Midnight EST. Good luck but if you don’t win be sure to go to your jam/jelly aisle at your local grocery store and pick up a jar of Musselman’s Apple Butter!
As part of my Monday Munchies series, I will feature a different eatery for a review on the first and third Monday of every month. Hope you enjoy!
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While Price and I were in the process of our house this spring, we saw a special on Chronicle about Chelsea, which added to our excitement about the city that we would be moving into. It gave us a lot of information about the history of the tiny city just outside of Boston as well as some great places to go to in Chelsea to see or eat. One place in particular was Katz’s Bagel Bakery. Who doesn’t love a great bagel? (Carbophobes- just stop reading…)
Katz’s Bagel Bakery (pronouced Kate’s) has been open in the same location since 1938 and has been run by 3 generations of Katz men; Harry to Richard and now Jimmy and Jeremy. They make bagels the authentic way by boiling them, letting them dry in a dryer, and then baking them. This process is applied to all of their varieties of bagels. The time, care. and quality ingredients they put into their bagels, and other bakery products, really shows.
So whenever we are in town we go to Katz’s bagels for breakfast on the weekends. I love bagels but I love really good bagels. Bagels from Katz a crusty on the outside and chewy on the inside. When split open you see a perfectly worked dough that has lovely air pockets giving it an all around great texture.
Katz’s is home to Pizza Bagels. Harry Katz came up with the idea in the 70’s to close a bagel and flatten that out a bit and use at as the dough. This makes their ‘pizza dough’ thick, chewy and the perfect base for a cheesy individual pizza. I did the biggest blogger faux pas and didn’t take a picture of my bagel pizza. I heated it up and it was so amazing looking I just dived in. once I was staring a an empty plate… oh crap! picture!! So here’s the deal, trust me when I say their pizza bagels are awesome and just go to get one.
No matter if you go for bagels, pizza bagels, bagel wrapped hot dogs, muffins, or eclairs (Friday & Saturday) you will have a great product, for a great deal. In this particular visit, I walked out of there with a bagel, cream cheese, pizza bagel, and a very large bag of bagel chips for just $8.
Check out Katz’s on a Chronicle segment.
139 Park Street
Chelsea, MA 02150
617.884.9738
Closed Mondays
I’ve been lucky to have quite a few meals recently that afterwards have stuck with me and I have not been able to stop thinking about. One is the tacos, queso, and agua frescas that we had from TacoDeli when I was visiting Austin. Thankfully, I’ve had another much closer experience that has been really memorable. I went to M3 in Somerville with Boston Brunchers. We had a fantastic time and had to practically be rolled out of there. Check out their brunch menu and you’ll see what I’m talking about!
M3 means ‘meat and three‘ which is a play on Southern restaurants that has customers pick out a meal and 3 of the available daily sides. This place serves up your favorite Southern favorites that can’t be missed. M3 is nicely decorated with fun light fixtures, chalk board walls, and pictures of Elvis. It was a nice place that I could sit and really enjoy anothe brunch or dinner. I know the next time that I go for brunch I have to try their shrimp and grits.
One of the really cool things that M3 does is that they make their own pickles. Their pickled vegetables were featured in several of their dishes, as well as their bloody mary’s. I like that they take the time to make their own pickles.
We started with watermelon salad (7). This was a great start as it was light, fresh, and showcased some great picked fruit and vegetables. I had never had pickled watermelon before so it was nice to try something new. I liked that it had the flavors of a pickling solution but it was still pretty light incomparison to the natural sweet flavor of the watermelon.
Then chicken and biscuits (7) came. We each had a chicken and biscuit to ourselves, which was great as sharing is not an option with this. The biscuit was buttery, soft, and flaky, then it was topped with a fried piece of chicken breast, and then covered in a sausage gravy. I loved everything about this. Our table felt this was a bit salty but really good. I prefered it salty but someone might not like that.
This was my first time trying scotch eggs (6). It was really good but it will probably be my last as I just don’t like hardboiled eggs. Kind of a major problem for scotch eggs as they are hardboiled eggs, just coated and fried.
And then the shared plates began with the chicken and waffles (11). This was the one dish that everyone commented on. The chicken and waffles were great but it just seemed to miss the mark, at least in what we were expecting. The waffle was fantastic but the chicken has us wasnting something more. The waffle was soft, fluffy, and sweet and served with some sour cherries. The chicken was tender and coated well but we were disapointed that it was a sweet coating. We were expecting a savory coating as it was paired with the sweet waffle- a little ying and yang action. Had the chicken had a salty coating this would have been a huge winner in my book. I would get this again, but I would just need some hot sauce on the side.
The food kept coming with blueberry pancakes (8). I don’t love pancakes so this was not for me. I felt the pancakes were a little dense but it was nice to have the blueberries and blueberry syrup on top to enjoy with them. There was a lemon flavored butter that was the highlight of the dish.
The last thing to grace our table was the cinnamon bran french toast (9). It was such a beauty. Thick cut french toast that was coated in bran and then drowned in maserated fruit and syrup. Then it was topped with some chocolate dipped bacon. Holy cow. Crazy. I could see myself going back and getting this as I loved the flavor and texture of the french toast. I feel like I need to coat all french toast in cereal now.
I managed to somehow haul myself out of my seat to head home. Then I spent the rest of the day thinking about the brunch and telling myself I could not possibly be hungry ever again. ha!
382 Highland Avenue
Somerville, MA
617-718-6666
*While I did receive this complimentary brunch provided by The Farm School these opinions are entirely my own.
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Thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment to provide some feedback. I appreciate all the comments I receive.
When Price and I were wandering around Newport we spotted a pretty nonchalant sign for brunch but there was something that caught my attention on it. Their Bacon Bloody Mary. Yuu had me at bacon. So we hop, skipped, and jumped into Christie’s for brunch. Obviously I got Eggs Benedict! I can’t pass up an opportunity to enjoy it! And enjoy it I did, just like the rest of our meal!
Bacon Bloody Mary – so completely bacony. I love bloody mary’s so I love trying different kinds. Our awesome waitress told us that they make their own bacon infused vodka. I like their dedication to making the best- like making a bacon salt mixture to use on the rim on the glass. As a bloody mary lover I really liked this because it was a great balance of tomato, vodka, and seasonings. However, I don’t like smokey bacon and this was made with a smokey bacon so I didn’t love it. ($10)
Tomato Bruchetta – Such a great starter. Simple, fresh, flavorful. The tomato bruchetta was fresh and lightly dressed so the tomatoes were really on show instead of being overpowered with garlic, oil, and S&P. The mozzarella was milky and very soft. The greens on top was a nice change from the typical basil. ($4)
Christie’s Burger- Price had the burger and really enjoyed it. It stood tall on a cutting board with a burger, lettuce, tomato, and a tempura onion ring. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare. The fries that accompanied the burger reminded me of fries that I used to get at the beach growing up. The reminded me of summer. ($12)
Crab Cakes and Poached Eggs– This is such a great version of Eggs Benedict with it’s large crab cakes, poached eggs, and a tomato hollandaise sauce. The crab cake base was very good with tender, moist crab cakes that were not stuffed with filled. The crab cake was full of crab and tender vegetables like red pepper. The crab cake was seasoned well that it was good alone. I would have preferred for a bit more larger pieces of crab- maybe this was just mixed too much? The eggs were oozey and delightful. The tomato hollandaise sauce was like a typical hollandaise sauce but with a punch of extra flavor. The slight tint from the tomato made the sauce more orange than yellow, which went to well with the green from the herbs in the sauce. The biggest disappointment was the hash-browns. They were so crispy but under-salted so very bland. ($12)
The service here was fantastic from the moment we walked in. Our waitress was kind, informative, and attentive. The place was pretty quiet which is disappointing since we had great food, drink, and service so I hope that people take a step off the street to get into Christie’s. Enjoy the deck and have fun!
Crab cake– 34 pts
Poached Egg– 25 pts
Hollandaise Sauce– 25 pts
Hash-brown and Greens– 6 points
Total: 90/100
351 Thames Street
Newport, Rhode Island 02840
401-846-8018
As much as I reviewed the Hash Benedict at Deluxe Station Diner I am sharing with you my thoughts about the Hash Benedict from the Deluxe Town Diner, the sister restaurant of DSD. For the most part these diners’ menus are similar but our heart belongs to Deluxe Town Diner. Years and Years ago I was addicted to watching ‘The Best Of…” on Food Network. ‘The Best of…‘ was a toned down version of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. It was hosted by Marc Silverstein and Jill Cordes and I loved watching it to learn about different places that had great food.* They featured the Deluxe Town Diner since they are so well known for their pancakes. We went the next day.
Since out first time going we have been countless times to enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner. Our favorite is breakfast is the menu is so vast
While both Hast Benedict from Deluxe Town and Deluxe Station were awesome, the Deluxe Town Diner is the winner. The hash was on point again with large chunks of fresh corned beef. The egg was cooked better resulting in a perfectly poached egg- set whites and a super bright runny yolk. The hollandiase sauce was velvety and so rich. Perfect indulgent brunch item to carry you through the day (of errands!).
As much as I love the eggs benny on top of the hash the real star of the show is their corned beef hash. It is such a good quality and so fresh. I love that their hash is not just meat and potatoes but there are vegetables, like carrots, in there too. It seems like a great compliment to the potatoes and the salty meat. Lastly, I love that they take the time to shred the corned beef instad of just chopping it up. Shredding it is best as it naturally breaks apart along the gaining in the meat. (If you also really enjoy hash you should check out this Boston Globe article. yum!)
English muffin– 20/20 pts
Corned Beef Hash– 20/20 pts
Poached Egg– 25/25 pts
Hollandaise Sauce– 18/20 pts
Side– 9/10pts
Total: 92/100
627 Mount Auburn St
Watertown, MA 02472
617.926.8400
*At least I think that is the show I was watching! It has been 7 years so my mind could be playing tricks on me!