{"id":327,"date":"2011-03-22T22:06:56","date_gmt":"2011-03-23T02:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=327"},"modified":"2011-03-22T22:09:25","modified_gmt":"2011-03-23T02:09:25","slug":"brunch-at-the-perch-cafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/?p=327","title":{"rendered":"Brunch at the Perch Cafe"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

And I learned that by "Perch," they don't mean the fish.<\/p><\/div>\n

Saturday morning, after a late night of grilling, poker playing, and a backyard bonfire, my roomie Nick suggested that it was time for brunch. \u00c2\u00a0Fayaz was out of town to Miami on “spring break” and Meg was stuck in Midtown editing an article for the law journal,\u00c2\u00a0but a few guests had spend the night – one visitor from Maryland\u00c2\u00a0and two NYC friends who decided not to brave the 4:30 a.m. subway ride home\u00c2\u00a0from Park Slope — so we had a nice little crew. \u00c2\u00a0After a bit of internet searching to decide where to go, we were out walking in the cool spring air to the Perch Cafe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Before I talk about Perch Cafe I have a Minnesotan\u00c2\u00a0confession. \u00c2\u00a0When I heard the name Perch, I immediately thought of the little fish that I would catch as a kid–not the thing birds do on sticks and wires. \u00c2\u00a0I know, surprising since I currently live with two pet birds.\u00c2\u00a0 I guess it just\u00c2\u00a0goes to show: you can take the Minnesotan out Minnesota, but not the Minnesota out of the Minnesotan.<\/p>\n

When the five of us arrived at 12:30, brunch was in full swing. \u00c2\u00a0True to Park Slope the children were numerous, but after almost three years out here it’s kind of nice to see them. \u00c2\u00a0There wasn’t an open table in the place… but there was outside!\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0All wasn’t lost, we wouldn’t need to wait 30 minutes to get seated, as we made our way directly\u00c2\u00a0to the patio.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0The air was cool, but the sun was warm so we jumped at the chance to take the brunch outdoors.<\/p>\n

Last week, I wrote a post about my brunch experience at Sette<\/a> and I can’t help but compare. \u00c2\u00a0The Perch brunch was filled with pandemonium, but the terrific attitudes of our server and the manager, plus the pure awesomeness of the food made for\u00c2\u00a0a night-and-day difference in brunching-experience at this place\u00c2\u00a0after my\u00c2\u00a0recent disappointment\u00c2\u00a0with Sette.<\/p>\n

The confusion for our server seemed present from\u00c2\u00a0her first appearance: she poked her head out the back door, looked around and pondered, seemingly to herself, whether we were her party of five.\u00c2\u00a0 She slipped back inside and came back in a few minutes with water and only 4 sets of cutlery for the 5 of us.\u00c2\u00a0 But she was positive and upbeat and we all enjoyed\u00c2\u00a0exchanging a few stupid jokes as we ordered. \u00c2\u00a0The food came out in spurts, and there was a need to switch-up an order of waffles because the kitchen had run out of batter. \u00c2\u00a0After the first plate or two came out Matt, in visible pain,\u00c2\u00a0decided that the night before had gotten the better of him, and that it was best that he head home for a nap. \u00c2\u00a0There seemed to be a lot of\u00c2\u00a0confusion about what food would be ready when. \u00c2\u00a0At one point, refilling our\u00c2\u00a0coffee, the\u00c2\u00a0waitress\u00c2\u00a0looked\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0particularly\u00c2\u00a0stressed and we inquired what was going on.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0A little prodding finally invoked a report of a\u00c2\u00a0fight in the kitchen (which she had just broken up), but she\u00c2\u00a0assured us that everything was back on track now and the rest of the food would be on its way. \u00c2\u00a0 We then, along with a number of\u00c2\u00a0apologies, received the rest of the orders \u00c2\u00a0as they were ready.<\/p>\n

It was all little crazy. \u00c2\u00a0But the\u00c2\u00a0waitress\u00c2\u00a0was upbeat,\u00c2\u00a0apologetic,\u00c2\u00a0and happy to joke with us about the\u00c2\u00a0situation. \u00c2\u00a0A complete contrast to\u00c2\u00a0the manner of\u00c2\u00a0the sulking waiter at Sette, faced with similar\u00c2\u00a0hiccups. \u00c2\u00a0And, near the end of our meal, that manager came over, introduced himself, and\u00c2\u00a0explained that there was a new cook getting used to handling the big brunch rush and that our drinks and some of the food would be comped.<\/p>\n

I should also note that the patio started to fill as we ate, and that other tables seemed to have smooth sailing with their orders. \u00c2\u00a0I think we just got hit by some of the chaos that can happen at any\u00c2\u00a0restaurant\u00c2\u00a0and the people at Perch handled it well.<\/p>\n

But, let’s not forget to address the excellent food. \u00c2\u00a0Between the five us, we filled the table with huevos rancheros (my order), waffles,\u00c2\u00a0French\u00c2\u00a0toast, eggs\u00c2\u00a0Benedict, corn chowder, tomato soup, and grilled cheese. \u00c2\u00a0With a lot of sharing \u00c2\u00a0at the table, I was able to sample a little of everything.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The huevos rancheros started with a tortilla and with a layer of black beans, topped with two perfectly-fried eggs, some sour cream, and guacamole. \u00c2\u00a0With a generous helping of the\u00c2\u00a0Tabasco\u00c2\u00a0sauce (I’m a big fan of spice, in case you haven’t noticed), I was very content. \u00c2\u00a0I just love \u00c2\u00a0the\u00c2\u00a0combination\u00c2\u00a0of black beans and eggs for breakfast. \u00c2\u00a0And the eggs were done right, with nice runny yolks, but a good crisp on the bottom and edges. \u00c2\u00a0(The color in the photo is a little \u00c2\u00a0off, the guac was beautiful and bright in person–my cellphone camera sometimes just\u00c2\u00a0decides\u00c2\u00a0to blue out pictures.)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The eggs Benedict, which I have an ever-growing soft spot for, were delicious.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Again, nice runny yolk and a good ham-to-egg-to-bread ratio. \u00c2\u00a0In an interesting twist, Perch used corn bread as a base, in place of the traditional English muffin.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0In my experience, corn bread can be hit or miss. \u00c2\u00a0Sometimes it’s just too dry for my taste. \u00c2\u00a0In this case, either from some inherent cornbread moisture or from the runny yolk and Hollandaise sauce, the corn bread had just the right level of moisture and worked as a perfect base for getting all the\u00c2\u00a0deliciousness onto the fork. \u00c2\u00a0This dish also came with homefries, which, in an interesting change-up to the standard fair, included sweet potato.<\/p>\n

The French toast and the waffles were good–if you are into that kind of thing. \u00c2\u00a0I just don’t understand why I would eat the “sweet” when there is so amazing “savory” to be enjoyed.<\/p>\n

The corn chowder was good pick for the cool day and\u00c2\u00a0actually\u00c2\u00a0pretty perfect to eat via dunking the bread that came on the side. \u00c2\u00a0Finally, the grilled cheese and tomato soup was rock star. \u00c2\u00a0Yeah, grilled cheese and tomato soup is pretty much always satisfying and it would probably take\u00c2\u00a0some work\u00c2\u00a0to make it fail, but this stuff was really done well: the soup was thick and chunky and grilled cheese had just the right crunch to the bread.<\/p>\n

Each dish was a solid execution of a simple, tasty idea. \u00c2\u00a0All-in-all, Perch Cafe should find it’s way into everyone’s BK brunch rotation.<\/p>\n

Next up, the Do-It-Yourself brunch!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday morning, after a late night of grilling, poker playing, and a backyard bonfire, my roomie Nick suggested that it was time for brunch. \u00c2\u00a0Fayaz was out of town to Miami on “spring break” and Meg was stuck in Midtown editing an article for the law journal,\u00c2\u00a0but a few guests had spend the night – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dining-out","tag-brunch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eatcooklive.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}