Of all the new restaurant openings of 2015 few have achieved such solid footing as Terlingua. And they’ve achieved this even without adding the millennial menu essential, quinoa in all its guises. Rather it’s essentially a barbecue joint. But that doesn’t begin to tell what it does so well beyond lunch and dinner (see past reviews). Stage left enter their Sunday brunch. I had it for the first time this weekend and enjoyed one of the best examples of the otherwise ubiquitous eggs Benedict.
Brunch
You won’t find the typical weekend brunch menu at Roustabout, the new Italian-American bistro that opened on Washington Avenue recently. (See dine-out dinner review.)
And that’s just fine with me because as much as we love our eggs Benedicts and variations thereof, the dish is everywhere.
What you will get is a carefully thought out menu. Don’t look, then, for other typical dishes like sausage gravy over biscuits or cracklings of bacon rashers with eggs over easy. This is, after all, brunch, the combination of morning and noontime leisurely dining where a little bit of this and that suffice.
I had the house-cured char, their take on cured salmon. It’s served with a spicy mascarpone to spread on wonderful housemade rye crackers upon which you put slivers of cured char and a delicious side garnish of roasted tomato, mint leaves, red onion and capers in a light vinaigrette.
Along with a well-made, well-garnished bloody Mary it’s a great way to begin. The char is more of a substantial dish that you would think. Followed by a small dish of scrambled eggs is just right.
At 8:55 AM on Sunday morning 10 of us were waiting to get into Caiola’s for brunch. The popular West End eatery was running late, opening 5 minutes past its 9:00 AM appointed hour. Yes, I’ve written about Caiola’s brunch prowess many times and here I am again. Yes, other Portland restaurants have distinctive brunch menus beyond the usual eggs Benedict. And I should venture forth.
The finest culinary minds take the art of cooking to new levels even when the dialectic of simple versus grand is a basic conundrum. But consider another possibility in our flavor domain: weird—or deliciously weird. It’s one thing to spiral high over an incredibly flavorful dish when the sum of its ingredients are unique. But then there’s the far-out mother of invention taking hold and you, as a diner, encounter something so completely different. These revelations don’t often occur at brunch, the superciliousness of a meal that occurs mostly on Sundays. The progression of mimosas and bloody’s, all kinds of eggs Benedict and omelets, pancakes and French toast or just plain old bagels and “lox” (as it’s still known in Manhattan circles) are often mundane and predictable even if comfort-food good.
