Barbette **** 4/5 stars

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.