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.