Not gonna lie...I woke up this morning feeling pretty rough. Yesterday's festivities, including but not limited to house cleaning, art sledding, northeast meat raffle crawling and Scrabble wars somehow lead to extreme overindulgence. But I still managed to drag myself out of the house and down the street to the charming Citizen Cafe. This is how you know I'm dedicated to my brunch or now more specifically to this blog.
So I've been wanting to hit the Citizen for a while now. I've driven by so many times and have been drawn to its strikingly printed awnings that boldly state "cafe for the people." But, good design also makes me suspicious. A lot of the best breakfast places are divey diners with ripped up booths that reek of bleach and grease and old cigarette smoke. Gross, really, but somehow that makes the experience more "authentic." This adorable building with its well-designed awnings, and craftsman style exterior could very well house sub-par cooking and dry ambiance.
Step inside. The design on the inside is just as good as out and the atmosphere is warm and inviting. Not very big, but not too crowded either. We had to wait a couple minutes for a table. During that time my hangover was progressively getting worse. I was afraid I might have to bolt...
As a graphic nerd, I am totally in love with their logo and their menus. Bold, simple, colorful, and easy to read. The fresh yogurt smoothie of the day was triple berry, which sounded perfect and tasted amazing. I slammed it down. I was starting to come around.
The citizen seems to be famous for their hashes. But they've got pretty much anything you would desire for breakfast. I chose the veggie hash, B chose the frittata.
Wise Acre should talk to the Citizen's chef about how to make a good hash. Really flavorful and the roasted veggies were cooked perfectly. Bonus points for including beets. The fried egg on top was salty and delicious. I'm feeling revived.
B said the frittata was frittasty. Okay, he didn't exactly say that, but he did enjoy it. They also brought us a small plate of breakfast bread - fresh scone and a berry nut bread with maple butter. Yum!
We noticed a couple that looked like they were on a brunch date. This place is pretty romantic (not overtly so) but it's cozy and intimate and just makes you feel warm and happy. I'd recommend it for a date spot or a great place to bring your parents when they're in town. I can't wait to try out their dinner menu. Major brunch love for the Citizen Cafe.
Barbette (or Babette or Brunette as my stupid iPhone likes to call it) is the number one list item on Citypages when you search for breakfast. That's not surprising because it's at the beginning of the alphabet...AND it's freaking awesome. So I admit I was feeling lazy today. I wanted a comforting brunch that I knew would be great. (You can't blame me after last week.)
There's a reason you go to Barbette. The feeling you get when you walk in the door is not unlike being wrapped in a warm blanket and extremely unlike being punched in the face. We prefer the bar seating near to the bottles...and the very attentive and gracious servers.
Brandon enjoys the chest-hair-inducing strength of their drip coffee and I like to make milk mustaches with their super frothy and delicious cappuccinos. After downing half a cup, B, who's currently taking a macro economics class, was finally able to convince me that communism just doesn't work.
Now I'm going to go out on a limb and make a bold statement. Barbette has the best benny in town. The eggs are poached beautifully and actually still runny in the middle, which, for some reason, doesn't happen a lot in Mpls. People are either distracted by perfecting the hollandaise or legitimately afraid of undercooked yolk. In my opinion, a poached egg MUST be runny. Put a simple salad with a light vinagrette on my breakfast plate and you get an extra star.
B got the waffles. Though a bit undercooked and doughy, I can't help but forgive them because of the prior stellar performance on my plate.
I've never been to France, but I think Barbette might just as cool, if not cooler than any bistro you'd find there. Beautiful, cozy, intimate, friendly. This is one of my favorite brunches in town.
“When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last,
"what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast?" said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully. "It's the same thing," he said.”
-A.A. Milne
Wise Acre, located next to and furnished lavishly with seasonal planters and bouquets from Tangle Town gardens, gets an "A" for atmosphere. And that is where it ends...
Having tried WA once already for dinner, and having not been entirely impressed, we thought we'd give brunch a shot. Trust me, after falling in love with the ambiance, decor and our handsome server (Brandon might disagree here), I was ready to have my tastebuds molested by fresh, local, organic ingredients from Tangletown Gardens' Farm in Plato, MN. We ordered, and the CSA hash was delivered...
Gorgeous presentation! Now I have to get critical...
The main problem with Wise Acre's dishes, is that they seem to believe that fresh, organic meals should taste, well, like they came straight out of the dirt... The veggies, although cooked, were very close to raw. So nothing really "melded" together as I believe a hash should. For $12 that's only one scrambled egg. The toast was dry and we weren't offered anything to smear onto it. All in all, a disappointing, disjointed, expensive meal.
Sorry, Wise Acre, I really want to love you, but your chunky produce leaves me raw with desire for something...anything else. We won't be back...
There are two things I have come to know about myself. One, I love brunch. And two, I am the worlds toughest critic. Both of these realizations have lead to the birth of Bad Eggs. This is, simply, a blog about brunch. Minneapolis based but not exclusive, my brunch-savvy team and I will bring you trust-worthy reviews of the best and worst breakfast bordellos. I make no promises about the consistency of content or our general level of professionalism, but that's the beauty of the blog. One thing I do know for sure...breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So, how do you like your eggs?
