September 7, 2008: Chef Geoff's Downtown Jazz Brunch

Location: Chef Geoff's Downtown, on 13th? between E and F.

Attendees: Dana, Joyce and Yinnie.

Eats: Another prix fix menu - choice of coffee or tea; OJ, mimosa or bloody mary; appetizer and entree all for $25! Yinnie immediately picked the Eggs Chesapeake while Dana and Joyce hemmed and hawwed over choices: Dana finally got the Bacon and Eggs (sans bacon) and Joyce chose the Eggs Chesapeake as well.

Drinks: Coffee and Tea, Dana and Yinnie had mimosas and Joyce had a bloody mary. The Bloody Mary was decent - Joyce has been on a search for the best bloody mary in town (she found the best in Boston...a place called Garden of Eden uses freshly squeezed tomato juice...ahhh...the joy)

Appetizer: fresh fruit salad and coffee cake. It was clear that the coffee cake had been sitting out sliced for a while - since all of ours were a bit on the dry side (if not hard as a rock). The fruit salad was ok - cantelope, honeydew, watermelon, strawberries and blueberries - decent but not inspired.

Entrees:
Bacon and Eggs included: three poached eggs, a medley of sauteed spinich, peppers, tomatoes and onions, hollandaise sauce, CG home fries, brioche toast and whipped butter (we got the bacon on the side, so we could try it since Dana is a vegetarian).
Eggs Chesepeake included: hollandaise sauce on top of three poached eggs atop mini crabcakes and English muffins, also had CG home fries.

Entree thoughts: Dana thought that there was too much going on with her Eggs and veggies to really need the hollandaise sauce. The Eggs Chesepeake were good, but again, not inspired. Nothing to sing about - decently poached eggs (if a bit on the medium side), crabcakes were really minicakes. The Applewood smoked bacon - truthfully, how can you screw up bacon? There's a bit of oink oink, including oink oink fat and crispy goodness. I think the fact that we left all the bacon pretty much untouched tells it all. Both Yinnie and Joyce are porcine fans - and we both had one piece and left the rest. Very sad day when bacon disappoints. The best part of the meal (other than the conversation of course) was the homefries. Crispy fried circles of yumminess.

Ambience: Very clubby (as in dark wood, men clubby, not neon and strobe lights). It was a bit chilly in terms of temperature (but then again, we're typically chilly inside) - but the service was impeccable.

The ladies can barely pucker up to give it one and a half smooch because of the drinks and homefries - the saving grace.

August 24, 2008: Co Co Sala

I'm not going to go back and list all the other places that we've gone to (especially since we've been brunching for almost 6 months now)...so we'll just start with the most recent brunch spot.

Location: Co Co Sala. located on F Street between 9th and 10th.
Attendees: Jasmine, Hae Jin, Joyce, Felicity, Sarah, Yolanda and Dana.
Eats: After much debate, most of us split between the Twice Baked Souffle and the Breakfast Flatbread. Several folks chose the Prix Fix menu which included an Amuse Bouche and a selection of desserts with the entree.

Drinks: Lattes, Lemonade, Iced Tea and Coffee all around. The proprietor (a dude with a really great speaking voice) sold us on the coffee which is roasted in small batches in Annapolis. Truly delish coffee.

Amuse: A Chocolate fritter. We were worried that with all the sweets, we would overdose on sweetness (which is probably why we all chose savory dishes for the entree). But essentially, the Amuse was a glorified Munchkin - delicious and not too sweet. The chef balanced the chocolate with (what else) salt which ended up being a good complement.

Entrees: I had the breakfast flatbread - "how can you go wrong when every ingredient is delicious - it's bound to be tasty" Pesto flatbread topped with hash browns, then scrambled eggs, then chicken sausage, then bacon, then cheese, then sun dried tomatoes and topped off with a generous dollop of hollendaise sauce. Low-cal it definitely was not (my personal trainer would have killed me given how I'm supposed to be on a "diet" of sorts) - tasty it sure was. From around the table, I have a feeling that everyone who got to souffle also loved that as well.

Dessert: A selection of 4 desserts of which each person on the prix fix got to pick 2. Thus, since we had a nice round number of prix fix choosers, we ended up getting 12 desserts (3 of each type). I think the favorite of the group was the pecan torte of sorts (we could choose from a chocolate mousse over a piece of shortbread topped with chocolate and strawberries, pecan torte on top of a brownie topped with hazelnut? mousse and sugar topping, lemon panna cotta, and raspberry (we believe) chocolate cake). From the remnants, we liked them all.

Ambience: We were seated at the bar (I'm sure they regretted this after we became loud and rowdy as we tend to do). The restaurant is divided into three rooms. The one we were in had chocolate walls and a sculptural ceiling painted to look like chocolate. The room next to us had the actual pastry area where you could watch (in the back) your desserts being made. The final room had just been opened recently and again evoked candy. Sculptures from chocolate and spun sugar decorated the restaurant. All in all, we loved the atmosphere - our impression is that the demographic the restaurant is targeting is women. Everything from the silverware to the dishes appealed to us.

Other notes: The proprietors informed us that they had a late night menu and served food until 2ish (on the weekends). They also pointed out the grilled cheese sandwich (which is chedder topped with white truffle oil) paired with tomato soup. The dinner menu consists of comfort food twists (upscale mac and cheese, etc.) - since we didn't get a chance to taste, we determined that we would have to come back and have dinner there (twist our arms why don't you!). Also, they do serve two of my favorite drinks: Van Gogh Double Expresso Vodka and Leblon. They have a curious (conceptually) drink called the cocojito. Mojito made with the Expresso Vodka, lime and mint. We'll have to see how that turns out.

All in all, GREAT brunch location. Definitely tops in our books - the ladies give it three smooches out of 4. Pictures to follow....

Brunch history

So after weeks and weeks of brunching through Washington with the ladies, and after Hae Jin put up photos of our brunch from Co Co Sala, I thought what better way to memorialize our weekly outings than a blog. This way we can keep track of where we've gone and what we liked.

The inspiration for the weekly brunches actually stemmed from Michigan where Dana would host a weekly potluck brunch at her place. All the ladies would bring a dish or something to cook (or a beverage) and we would dish about what we did over the week.

Cut to 4 years later, when I move to DC and rejoin Dana. The interesting thing about DC is that we gals tend to have many gal-pals. After reconnecting with some friends from all over the place, we gals had a couple of commonalities: (1) we were all young professionals encountering the same issues in different fields and (2) we love brunch.

Thus the inception of the Brunching through Washington group (another gal-pal suggested the phrase Ladies who Brunch and it's catchy which is why it's the name of the blog).