gather

Pembroke[1], MA
(Thursday, 07/19/2018)

https://gatherandeat.com/


Place: gather

Location:  35 School Street, Pembroke, MA

Hours: open at 7:00am Tuesday to Saturday for breakfast

Meal: (me) Green Goddess Frittata ~ a classic Italian-style omelet with arugula, asparagus and Feta cheese, served with your choice of toast (I chose Ciabatta White), and a side of Chef's Home Fries; (Sean) Short Rib Breakfast Poutine[2] ~ braised short ribs, house-made (restaurant-made, whatever) mornay, fresh Mozzarella cheese curds and Chef's Home Fries with a sunny-side egg, served with your choice of toast; (Nick) Something Simple ~ 2 eggs any style (I think he went with scrambled), choice of sausage/bacon/chorizo (Nick chose bacon), served with Chef's Home Fries or a bed of fresh mixed greens and your choice of toast; (Mom) a side of raisin toast (again);
and to drink: (me) a mighty fine cuppa (and one refilla) beanstock Coffee Blackfish Creek Blend; (Mom) a cuppa Earl Grey tea (I forget what Sean and Nick had to drink)

https://beanstockcoffee.com/

(And, yes, there were each of parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme in this planter... and some lavender, too.)


"Oh, my!" (to be read in your best Hosato Takei voice)

If you are ever in Pembroke (the much larger city in Massachusetts, not that [original] fake one in Wales), and you are lookin' for a great place to gather for breakfast, look no further than gather. This restaurant is owned and cheffed by the son of an old high school classmate of mine (and by "old" I mean she is old, not me), Tambrie (née Piacentini) Wilson[3]. gather has only been open since the beginning of February this year. It was about a 45-minute trip there and back from Wareham, but it was definitely worth the ride ('specially 'cause I was not doing the driving this day for a change and we did not end up circling endlessly around Pembroke ["Siri, how do you get to downtown Falmouth from Pocasset?"]).

(Photo of Chef Nicholas Wilson with some skinny ol' geezer.)

(Nick [McGowan, not Wilson], Sean, and my mother.)


As we were some of the first diners there that morning, we got to usurp one of the two long bench-tables out on the front porch area. The weather was perfect that morning for dining al fresco (Chef Nick is mezzo-italiano himself, too, so he will know exactly what I mean there). 

I was also looking at a couple of other interesting meals on their breakfast menu (Ah! Who am I kidding? I had cheated a few weeks back and had checked out their menu on-line, and went there knowing exactly which dish I was going to order; I mean, asparagus AND Feta... those are probably my top two favourite foods):

Breakfast Burrito (Veggie or Meat) ~ a flour tortilla stuffed with your choice sausage, bacon, chorizo, or veggie, fresh scrambled eggs and Chef's Home Fries, smothered in a classic mornay cheese sauce and topped with a tomato salsa

or 

Stuffed French Toast ~ stuffed with strawberry-rhubarb compote (Oh, yeah!), mascarpone and cream cheese filling.

I was very happy to see that my frittata was chock full o' asparagus and Feta (you would be surprised how a lotta places go cheapo on both of these items); plus, the Feta was in large chunks not those measly crumblies that many places try to pass off for Feta. Needless to say (but I am needlessly saying it here, anyway), I loved this dish.

Knowing that the frittata (and toast) would probably not be enough for me, I wisely ordered the side of Chef's Home Fries. I was glad that I did so as these turned out to be very good homefries, too; they were made with both standard white potatoes and sweet potatoes.

I did not ask (nor see the need for) what gather might have to offer in the way of any hot sauce condimentary supplementation. However (and this was a great "however"-find), gather makes their own jams/preserves/compotes-stuff to serve with the toast. This week's homemade (gather-made, whatever) jam/preserves/compote-stuff was a blueberry-lavender (I guessed [correctly] that this jam/preserves/compote-stuff included some lavender in it and Chef Nick confirmed my suspicions; when I first tasted it, I knew there was some extra flavour that I had before, but was not exactly sure it was lavender ~ which turned out to be a nice complement to blueberry; I even suggested to Chef Nick that they oughtta make a cranberry-rosemary jam/preserves/compote-stuff ~ he humoured me and said he might try that). Now the real condimentary find here was their more-than-awesome vanilla-butter! 
I can not really do it justice in trying to explain it here; but, trust me, be sure to order something (toast, pancakes, French fries, etc.) that you can try some of this on if you ever eat there.

(not so very) Strange Coffee Interlude

Another major plus was the brand/blend of Coffee that they serve. beanstock turned out to be a very good "local" (well, if you are from the Cape Cod area) Coffee roastery out of Wellfleet. Tha's a fac', Jack! This was one of those "It just tastes better'n'better with each successive sip/gulp" kinda Coffees.

In conclusion, if I lived in the Boston-to-Wareham area (Pembroke is probably as far from Boston as it was from Wareham), this little place would definitely be Breakfastary Starting Rotation-worthy.


Glen Bacon Scale Rating:
Green Goddess Frittata ~ 7.3;
Chef's Home Fries ~ 7.0;
beanstock Blackfish Creek Blend ~ 7.5 (and rising);
Short Rib Breakfast Poutine ~ 7.5 (Sean has been schooled in the intricacies of the Glen Bacon Scale and can be trusted with his rating; Nick, on the other hand, rated everything as a "7.5"... fercryinoutloud, he just had eggs, bacon, and toast);
blueberry-lavender jam/preserves/compote-stuff ~ 7.0;
vanilla-butter ~ 7.5 (this was a general consensus among the table; and if they had rated it any lower, I was gonna overrule them and rate it 7.5, anyhow)


___________________

1. Where-broke?! Here-broke:

https://www.pembroke-ma.gov/

2. Tu peux répéter s'il te plait?

http://mentalfloss.com/article/57508/brief-history-poutine

I love poutine. What is not to love? French fries, cheese curds, and gravy?! C'est incroyable! It is just hard to find a decent stupid-vegetarian version, though. I usually have to just make it myself (See? I can "cook" when I want to.) and will use a mushroom-based gravy. The hardest part is finding real cheese curds in a local grocery store.

3. Tammy's (well, that was what I knew Tambrie as back in... well... a long time ago [Did I tell you she was really old?]) son Nicholas Wilson is the Chef-Partner in this great little (ad)venture. Nick was the runner-up on Season 1, Episode 2 of Guy's Grocery Games on the food network. 

https://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/closing-time-challenge-0214762