http://www.frenchsoulfood.com/
Brenda's ~ French Soul Food (over on Polk Street in the Tenderloin, near the Civic Center) was recommended to me by another regular customer at Dottie's TRUE BLUE CAFE last month when I ate there; he saw me writing notes about my breakfast and he said if you like Dottie's you will probably like Brenda's, too. Unlike Dottie's, Ella's, Chloe's, Eddie's, etc. there is a real "Brenda" associated with the restaurant AND she actually does the cooking, too. This is another one of those tiny, but good places; the total seating is only 34 (8-½ tables). So get there early or prepare for a bit of a wait; and much like Dottie's, this place is located in a sketchy area of the Tenderloin, so there is not much to do while waiting outside.
Brenda's offers many good breakfast/brunch** options on their regular menu and on their weekend specials board: today they had three different versions of Eggs Benedict (Fried Catfish, Florentine, and Molasses Ham) and a very tempting Pear Brown Betty Pancakes w/Whipped Cream. I liked how the silverware and napkins settings are in empty cans on the tables (Steen's® 100% Pure Cane Syrup, must be a Loosiana thing).
http://www.steensyrup.com/
While I was waiting for my order, I was entertained with a little N'Orleans Jazz playing on the house stereo: some Bessie Smith and Louis Prima that I recognized. So I am including a few links here from EweToob for your listening plaisir aussi:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FX8ptPn3P9I&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMwseIJwNao
As I just had Eggs Benedict yesterday and I knew I was going to have a side order of their Beignets*** (and didn't want all sweet, bread products ~ not to be confused with "sweetbread products", 'cause that would just be gross for breakfast), I went with the Creole Veggie Omelette ~ Corn macque choux**** (Gesundheit!), tomato, onion, pepper, spinach, Cheddar; served with a choice of potato hash or grits, and cream biscuit or toast. I also had a cuppa the house coffee Community Coffee & Chicory***** this is the same brand of coffee that Just For You cafe serves (see my last post from January 3rd, 2011). I went with the Beignets ~ Plain - for the die-hard traditionalist (3 each); they offer four different types of Beignets, and all of them sound good.
The omelette was very good with lots of fresh veggies; the corn was fresh, not frozen ~ always good; fresh spinach (again, not frozen) ~ also good; however, the peppers fooled me, Jerry! I thought they may have been pasilla chilis, but the waiter told me they were just plain ol' green bell peppers. Everything was fresh with lots of flavour ~ a nice all-around combination. I skipped the cream biscuit or toast (I would have opted for the cream biscuit) that come with the meal as I knew there was no way I would have room for that and the beignets and I really wanted to try their beignets. Their potato hash (which was just home fries à la N'Orleans) was okay, just not as good as the rest of the food ~ potatoes, green onions, and lots of spices; their grits looked pretty tasty (a good sized bowl with lots of cheddar cheese in them), so I will definitely get that as the side next time. The coffee was good and strong with lots of chicory, and served in a very large cup.
The beignets were excellent all by themselves, fluffy and hot, dusted with powdered sugar. Then I discovered they had a homemade strawberry jam on each of the tables. I am generally not a big strawberry jam fan (it always seems kinda pedestrian to me), but their version was great and made the beignets even more excellenter. I am not sure what the "Je ne sais quois" ingredient was in their jam: Ginger? Cinnamon? Whatever it was, it really made the jam jam.
For hot sauce condiments, they only offer Crystal® Louisiana's Pure Hot Sauce; so I went with some of my own stash: Sylvia's Restaurant® Kickin' Hot ~ Hot Sauce (a Loosiana-style hot sauce from New York City… Thanks again, Sean!) on the potatoes along with some fresh cracked McCormick's® black peppercorns on the potatoes and omelette.
Responsible eating is something that everyone needs to try. So, get over to Brenda's and "Laissez les bon temps beignet"!
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Creole Veggie Omelette ~ 6.8; Coffee ~ 6.7; Beignets ~ 7.0; Homemade Strawberry Jam ~ 7.1
*(This is the slogan on the back of the t-shirts that the waitstaff were wearing.)
**(While they technically call their weekend breakfasts "Brunch", this place opens early enough on Saturdays and Sundays ~ 8:00am ~ for my liking to ignore that snooty sobriquet.)
***(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
Beignets are basically French doughnuts. The word beignet is French for "fried dough".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beignets )
****(Macque choux = ??? I tried to look up the definition of this on the Intro-Net, but really couldn't find a decent answer. Let's just say it must mean some kinda N'Orleans-Frenchy corn relish.)
*****(Roasted chicory root is a common additive to N'Orleans-style coffee. I like it; it gives the coffee a pretty unique flavour.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicory )
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