Eats

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For the 2011 Season, I made a major Theo Epstein-like decision and I have moved Eats (on Clement Street; see November 13th, 2010 entry) into my standard Breakfast Rotation*. So we shall be seeing a bit more of this Rookie in the line-up this year. Welcome to the Bigs, kid! (Just don't be expectin' no Cy Young, as that is sure to be won ~ yet still again once more ~ by Dottie's TRUE BLUE CAFE.)


Upon the recommendation of Shelly (I was actually served by Kent, but no way was I going with his porky pick), I had the Spinach & Roasted Mushroom Benedict (v) ~ white cheddar, hollandaise, side potatoes or salad. As the main reason I have bumped this eatery into the Rotation was for their unbelievably Excellent! Home fries, there was no way I was going to get a crummy ol' salad with the meal. This would be kinda like asking Jon Lester or Timmay Lincecum to learn to pitch the Knuckleball. ("Salads? We ain't got no salads. We don't need no salads. We got the stinkin' rose in our Excellent! Home fries...")

I was glad to see that the Benedict was no Arnold and had lots of fresh sautéed spinach (always good) and roasted mushrooms (also good; sorry, Skip). The two poached eggs were both served on one large English muffin half and the other half was served like a little toast top hat (they were just Thomas'®, I asked); I used the top half to "butter" with the succulent roasted garlic cloves .

I really can't rave enough about their most Excellent! Home fries: which are made with lots of roasted garlic cloves (there were at least 12 today!) and chopped green onions. The garlic cloves were a bit messy at first until I figured out that I didn't need to peel them with my hands and that there was an art to shucking the paper/wrapping; I finally got the hang of de-papering them with my fork and knife ~ but it was well worth the sticky fingers for the first few cloves.

I also had a cuppa the house coffee ~ it was just okay. With home fries like they have, who cares what the coffee tastes like? After the first few cloves of roasted garlic, everything tasted like garlic, anyway.



To drink, I ordered From the Juice Bar: Mean Green ~ cucumber, pineapple, Romaine (as in lettuce), lime, and grape (also the green variety). This drink has a horrible colour, but actually was pretty good; the fresh flavour of the cucumber comes through and there is only a hint of the Romaine ~ which is tempered by the lime and grape, anyway. Other than the sickeningly dark green colour, you would really never know there was any Romaine or greens of any type in it.



For hot sauce condiments, they offer Cholula®, Tapatío®, and the standard red Tabasco®. I had brought a few from my own collection and went with some Sylvia's Restaurant Kickin' Hot ~ Hot Sauce® (Thanks again. Sean!) on the Benedict and some Trees Can't Dance ~ Belizean Habanero Sauce (Thanks again, Greg and Cindy!) on the Excellent! Home fries. They also have pepper and salt mills on all the tables and on the counter top ~ so I made good use of the fresh cracked black pepper liberally on the Excellent! Home fries and eggs.

If anyone ever complains about the ingenious idea of the roasted garlic cloves in the Excellent! Home fries ("Oooh, but I don't like garlic!") and they stop making it with them in it, you can expect this Rookie to be shuttled back down to Single A toot-sweet!


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Spinach & Roasted Mushroom Benedict ~ 7.0; Mean Green ~ 6.9; Excellent! Home fries ~ 7.5


*(Unfortunately that meant DFA-ing someone: Sorry, Chloe's, but Eats is a lot more local for me and their Excellent! Home fries was a big factor in this move. I will also be moving Q into the Rotation and sending Boogaloos down to AAA for this season. Again, this was mainly a locale decision, both Eats and Q are a lot easier to get to than these other two; however, I am sure that the other two veterans will both see action several times during the season.)