In the quest for interesting weekend brunch menus, Tiqa’s unique lineup of dishes is worth exploring. At other times, the vast rooms fill up in the evening hours with sundry assemblages of partygoers, from wedding soirees to large-scale groups dining out. Even the outdoor patio is outfitted for winter dining with towering heat lamps ready to ward off the chill. Management plans to keep it open through the holidays. Though I think they’d have to supply more than heat and fire pits; chinchilla throws and muffs might be more like it especially as winter winds whoosh off the harbor.
Tiqa
While the Portland restaurant scene verges on being a dead ringer for Brooklyn’s finest, Cape Betty across the bridge has few contenders unless you consider the new and very popular Rudy’s. But then go a little west of the ocean, to the verdant farm fields in this tony Cape Elizabeth neighborhood and you’ll be smack dab at Jordan’s Farm, with its most revered tenant, like the star sharecropper, Chef Jason Williams and The Well.
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.
