My wife and I decided on Carvers for Sunday breakfast in a last-minute, on-the-sidewalk decision. We arrived at the hostess stand amid a sea of people. Two or three were exiting, 7 or 8 were ahead of us, and a good grip of folks came through the door behind us. What waiting area there is, which isn't much at all, was PACKED, as was the bar and dining room. I asked the hostess about the expected wait for a two-topper. "5 to 8 Minutes' was her reply. She was right on time. In what seemed like a blink of an eye, she seated us and took our beverage order: a round of ice waters and regular Bloody Marys. They do offer a deluxe bloody, but its either 3 or 4 dollars more for some grey goose and bacon. The extras did not seem to be worth the extra expense. Within 45 seconds our Server Jules arrived with our waters and menus, and said she would be right back with our cocktails. She was back within 3 or 4 minutes, which seemed like seconds when you are perusing a large menu.
The breakfast menu is quite extensive, with two pages of options not to mention there were two specials that Jules told us about. All of them sounded really interesting. . 1 particular item caught our eye: Blue Corn Pancakes. "That sounds unique". I don't recall seeing any breakfast plate on the menu that was over 10 dollars. I think the Eggs Bene that I ordered were 8.75. My sweetheart got the Sweet Potato Hash, priced about the same. We also ordered 1 of those Blue Corn pancakes that piqued our interest. At this point, I commenced to consuming "the salad" that comes with a Bloody Mary, which is the only reason that I order them sometimes. The fare on the cocktail was 1 stalk of Celery, one olive, and one peppercini pepper. The bartender, manager, or owner "know" what they are doing here: The celery had been soaked/marinated in some well-salted water. Sadly, before I could finish the stalk, our food arrived, no more than 7 minutes after placing the order to the kitchen. I have been to slower McDonald's. Keep in mind that the dining room was filled up the Fire Marshall's limit on capacity. WOW! I asked Jules if there were 300 guys in the kitchen, she said "Nah, they were bored". In my mind, I replied "They have their shit together, for sure".
The Food: My sweetie's plate came with two eggs to order, some toast, and a side of sweet potato hash. I did not sample the eggs or toast, but the hash was at least 8 of 10 stars. Onions, Bacon, and diced sweet 'taters with a hint of rosemary. Bravo Carvers!
Our shared item: One blue corn pancake. Both of us were expecting something similar to a ho-cake or a jonnycake: smaller, thicker, more dense than "a pancake". Boy were WE wrong. What arrived was a golden brown plate-sized pancake that included some amount of blue corn meal or flour. I think its safe to say that this item is not gluten-free, if you are looking for that sort of thing. What it lacked in the "gluten free" category, it made up for 5-fold in the "Oh My God This Is Delicious" category. We smothered the cake in butter and skipped the syrup, in favor of the raspberry preserves that were in the jam jar on the table. Sadly, we left about 3 square inches of this giant pancake on the plate when we departed.
I ordered, as I mentioned above, the Eggs Benedict. Differing from the "norm", the menu states that eggs are fried "over medium" instead of poached, which is the norm. Yeah, okay, whatever: who cares? If you currently "care", you should stop caring about this because you are allowing your preconceived notion to lead you elsewhere on the menu. These may be THE BEST eggs bene that I have ever eaten, and I have consumed hundreds of plates of them. The Hollandaise was SMOOTH, creamy, and perhaps it met a lemon while it was vacationing in Florida. None of that grittiness with fake lemon taste here. The Ham? It was damn ham. Thick, salty, porky with a nice chew and smokiness. Yes, there were two eggs, fried over medium as well. ( they are eggs, we all like eggs, but they are eggs, after all.) Then, at the bottom of this stack of buttery, hammy, eggy goodness was this English Muffin. Oh this muffin! Now, I know that long before the sign said "Carver's Brewery", it said "Carver's Bakery". I can not confirm that these muffins are made "in house", but I have never had anything like them. These things were dense with an aggressive chewy crust that did not yield to the sloppiness of the Hollandaise or the runny egg yolks. While I cut them with a fork, it was work, and they soaked up all that gooey-ness like champs. If they don't make these wonders in the back, apparently no other establishment around the globe is able to obtain them. WOW! I want some more right now. Anyhow, the plate was finished with some house potatoes that were good, but I didn't finish those, favoring instead that blue-corn pancake smothered with raspberry jam.
Bravo Carvers! Bravo! read more