Puritan & Company Brunch with The Boston Brunchers

Last weekend I got to see the Boston Brunchers again, this time at Puritan & Company. I was very excited to get to Puritan & Company for brunch. We've been there for dinner a handful of times and I was always impressed! Chef Will Gilson has an amazing twitter avatar cooks from a traditional New England perspective and has created this charming and busy restaurant in Inman Square.

Below is the brunch and drinks menu. This brunch menu is a little meat heavy but has a few veggie egg dishes and sourdough griddlecakes as well. And the pastries. The pastries...

A cocktail called the concatenation? Excel geek here almost ordered it, except I do not like anise. Darn. Instead I got one of the brunch cocktails, the Park Avenue - along with 3/4 of the table I'd say. This was one strong brunch drink. It's a good thing I didn't get a beer while watching the basketball game right after this or anything. 

Holy pastries Batman! We had a Boston Cream donut, cherry blondies, banana bread, lemon cornmeal muffin, a dulce de leche and coconut danish, and a savory twist with ham and cheese. Wow. Everything here was phenomenal. The blondies were really complex and the texture of the muffin was awesome. The table's favorite was the danish, although I leaned toward banana bread, because banana bread.

Below are a few of the dishes the Brunchers tried:

Steak & Eggs

Broccoli & Cheddar Scramble

Copa Ham Breakfast Sandwich

Corned Beef Hash

Did you notice how beautiful those eggs are? Those are real farm fresh eggs and man are they delicious. I had the broccoli and cheddar scramble, which was all things eggs are supposed to be, and cheesy. I've recently realized that broccoli may be my favorite vegetable, so this was an added plus to the scramble (and we were all a little sad though that the quiche was sold out by the time we arrived).

Puritan & Company is now on my list of brunch recommends, though if you like Parker House rolls, make sure you stop in for dinner too!


Per usual, brunch was provided free to our group, but opinions are my own.

More Somerville Brunching: Ball Square Cafe

This month, Boston Brunchers descended on the Ball Square neighborhood (yay! more Somerville!!) for brunch at Ball Square Cafe. The owner, Mike, made everyone feel incredibly welcome, plying us with shots of hot chocolate and plates of sweet delicious breakfast foods! (Remember how I have an eternal eggs vs sweet brunch debate, problem solved.)

I was pretty pleased with the self-serve coffee and drinks, which means that you'd never have to wait for someone to come by and refill your coffee cup while you look forlornly at your dregs.

We started off with a french toasts with caramelized bananas and a Belgian waffle with fresh fruits - and whipped cream. Mike also brought out two bowls of fresh fruit, which I was pretty delighted with: there was mango and kiwi and berries and bananas and pineapple and, yeah, probably some melon in there somewhere, but I hate melons and rarely order fresh fruit at restaurants because it's mostly cut melons and grapes and sad bananas. Womp. This was so not that!

Since my brunch decision was made for me, I ordered the Moroccan eggs, scrambled. When food started being served, there was a little panic about where to put things because we had so much food. My eggs were great, dressed with lots of spices (and lots of cumin) which made them smell fantastic, and with tomatoes, peppers and onions. They went very well with my side of grilled mashed potatoes. (Sidebar: grilled mashed potatoes? I could have more of this in my life.) Because we had more food than 10 bloggers could eat, the remaining 2/3 of my breakfast went home to my husband as his post-13 mile run lunch.

I'd also put Ball Square Cafe on my run-to-eat list. In DC, we did a lot of weekend morning group runs to brunch, and this is a little less fancy than my go-to Foundry, where I feel like maybe I should change out of running clothes, if not shower first.

Thanks to Mike at Ball Square Cafe, Boston Brunchers and Blog and Tweet Boston for getting everyone out to Somerville again. When you're in the neighborhood, check out Ball Square Fine Wines, Lyndell's and head down Willow to Q's Nuts.

Brunching at Foundry on Elm

Wow, so the Boston Brunchers made it back out to the Davis Square neighborhood and went to brunch at Foundry.

Admittedly, this is not my first time at Foundry. It opened right about the time we moved to the Davis area and we go here a lot. As in, my Davis Square go-to. So, apologies is advance for a biased review.  

I've had brunch here before - the first time was the day after our wedding and it was before Foundry got a new chef, so let's toss that from the record. The second time was after an 11 mile run. I nearly fell asleep at the table! But I did have a preview of our starter - these delicious beignets! I'll tell you, they are just as delicious when you aren't willing to eat your own hand. The beignets are dusted in cinnamon sugar (brings back memories of the french toast at Catalyst) and they come with a lemon curd and a chocolate sauce. The nice part about these sauces are that neither is too sweet - the chocolate is a bittersweet and the lemon curd is nice and tart.  Everyone had to hold back on these.... Because.....

Sunday was the launch of Foundry's French country buffet brunch. We all walked over and checked it out. There was so much variety - eggs, breakfast sandwiches, potatoes, little scones and breads. I tried the blueberry cream cheese crepes which were excellent as well as the pain perdu bread pudding - which, you guys, we all raved about! It was lovely and definitely worth going for the buffet if you can't make up your mind at brunch.

Every morning for me starts with coffee, today we added a mimosa.

The vol au vent (bacon, spinach, poached egg, mornay sauce, flakey pastry bowl) and the breakfast flatbreads were the raved about dishes at the table. And, veggies - the vol au vent can be made without bacon.

I had the breakfast sandwich (also without sausage) and apparently was too excited to get a clear picture. Oops! Every time I brunch I debate between the sweet and the eggy. Today I went eggy, which was clearly the right choice based on the aforementioned beignets and pain perdu and crepes... I was pretty happy with my egg sandwich although I could have used some kind of vegetable on this plate.

 

Like I said, I debate between sweet and eggy, so I was pretty happy that we ordered the dutch baby for the table. It was a perfect sweet end to brunch. It also is served with ice cream, which is a bit much for me in the morning. (Put that on record, I'll never say it again.) The apple and blueberries on top were delicious though.

So... Brunch a Foundry? Will I be back? Resounding yes.
Also, I encourage you to try dinner or head over here for a drink. My favorite gnocchi & squash dish is on the menu and is a great winter dish.


And just in case it wasn't obvious by my raves over this great local spot, brunch was free of charge but my opinions are my own.

Catalyst with the Brunchers

On Saturday while I was sitting in the car in the driveway listening to a fascinating episode of This American Life or some other NPR Saturday show, I got a message on twitter from Renee of Boston Brunchers asking if I could join a brunch at Catalyst the next day. Well. Yes! I was bummed I couldn't make it to either brunch in Davis Square, so I was happy to be able to join something on this side of the river.

Catalyst changes their menu weekly, which is awesome, although for me, this week's menu was a little meat heavy. Vegetarians, don't let that deter you (although dieters, maybe you should keep your distance, or at least come with very good restraint), because the other options were fantastic!

 When you walk into Catalyst, you see a nice big space, with a large chunky bar and a cute chicken on the chalkboard. One nice thing about being in Kendall Square is that it's kind of hip and fresh (compared to my usual haunts in Davis) - even the bathrooms were so cool. I snapped a photo of this light fixture that was hanging over the seating area with fireplace by the entrance. From our table we could also see into the kitchen where brunch was being made!

After two nights of beer, I was prepared not to have a cocktail and to just drink as much coffee as possible, but our waitress suggested the seasonal mimosa of the day, which was an apple cider mimosa. I don't think any of the 10 brunchers at the table said no to that. (And it was phenomenal. 110% worth it.)



We started with a plate of ENORMOUS chocolate scones, skillet coffee cake, and spicy maple syrup wings for the table. Seriously, those scones were as big as my head. I admit to being a scone snob, so I'm going to tell you about the coffee cake. I saw it come out of the kitchen to another table and I could tell that this was going to be insane. And it was. There must have been so. much. butter. It had a nice crunchy crust on top, and a good ratio of crust to cake. This would make a nice breakfast on its own. You should definitely come to Catalyst with a table full of sharers.
 

Last time I was at brunch (post wedding of the year), I got eggs, and I was just plain sad about it. So today I went for my one true love, panko french toast. Admittedly, panko french toast is not my true love, but french toast in general, yes please.

This was no ordinary french toast, you guys. It was a nice crispy sourdough bread, crusted in panko, and I'm pretty sure deep fried, then coated in cinnamon sugar, and served with a dollop of bourbon whipped butter. I'd suggest you share this with your brunch date. I could barely eat through half of it. So crazy good.

My table mate had a delicious looking poached egg. Word on the street too is that the homemade ketchup is outstanding. I can vouch for the honey mustard sauce that came with french fries.




When you're dining here, you notice the theme is this cute little rooster who shows up on everything - including the water for the table!

I had a fabulous time at Catalyst, and it's on the list of Kendall Square restaurants/bars to bring my husband back to. 


And brunch was free of charge & my opinions are my own. 

Visit to Harvard Common Press

Last Sunday the Boston Brunchers went on an educational excursion to Harvard Common Press. Somebody (yes, me) showed up 30 minutes early be because she forgot to read her email.... So I ended up checking out the SoWa vintage market, a gallery of strange Japanese-inspired pottery, and the SoWa market, where I bought some Swiss chard and ricotta ravioli that I am dying to still try... They are in my freezer, and last week was so busy that I can't remember if I even made dinner at home at all.[Yep, by the time I'd updated this post, I can tell you they were delicious.]

I also apologize for not having any photos of this event. I get distracted when everyone is taking pictures and think, ok, someone got a picture of that, surely I don't need to also. Oops.

When we came in to HCP's offices, they had two bowls of punch (red and green, how festive) and coffee set up. Adam and Bruce took people around the offices and let us explore. They are in an old piano factory and have wonderful woven rugs from Oaxaca on the floors (so female employees in heels won't slip on the wood). Bruce also started collecting art from Mexico, included super cool wood cared sculptures.

The staff had made breakfast for us, a spinach and cheese strata, raspberry cream cheese coffeecake, and several other goodies, and we were able to sit in bruce's wife's sunny art studio next door to eat, drink wine from Richard at the Passionate Foodie, and listen to a great presentation about bloggers and the cookbook process.

It takes an unbelievable amount of time to get from blog posts to books on shelves and virtual shelves, what a dedication! Also, bloggers have to have at least 75% new recipes for books. Definitely not in my future! (see also, forgot to take any pictures.)

HCP was also amazing and left cookbooks as centerpieces for us to each take. I snuck away with a huuuuuge tome on pies! (Pies! We all know I love pie.) and the Baker's Field Guide. Most of us also snagged a galley copy of herbivoracious, which I am so excited to use. The only downside is, the photography from that book sounds awesome - it's all photos taken by the blog-author and it's all of vegetables!

Renee did a fantastic job organizing this one!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Temple Bar with Boston Brunchers

Yesterday I had the opportunity to head to Temple Bar for brunch with the Boston Brunchers.
I was pretty happy to have an event on this side of the river (especially because the t isn't running to my neighborhood) and it was a short shuttle bus ride away.

Temple Bar gets an A++ for service and hospitality. Their bartender mixed a special cocktail for us brunchers and the wait staff was really attentive.

They were also totally open to making substitutions to the menu for the pescatarians at the table.

We started out with coffee and pastries - banana bread and chocolate muffins, arranged very geometrically.

I ordered the citrus and fennel gravlax. Unfortunately, as a non-meat eater, the brunch menu was pretty limited for me. My other option was the mascarpone stuffed French toast (I had a taste and it was yummy) but I'm really glad I didn't order it... You'll find out why in a minute. The waiter also was quick to offer a substitution of smoked salmon on the eggs Benedict for one of the other gIrls at the table. I think my brunch may have had the most photos taken of it, the presentation was quite colorful. Also, the salmon had a really great flavor, not overly fishy as some smoked salmon is and nice subtle citrus.

Then, the waiters brought out 4 different desserts for us to try. (I only got a photo of the cranberry cake, the restaurant was dark, which had several of us using the flashlight apps on our phones to light photographs.) We also had pumpkin mousse, caramel creme brûlée seasoned with cardamom, and my favorite, chocolate bread pudding with caramel sauce.... Yum. Yum.

After brunch, several of us walked to Harvard Square to check out the craft fair and independent designers market.

All in all, a great way to start Saturday - and I went for a run beforehand! I'd definitely head back to Temple Bar, but probably not for brunch, just because options for me are too limited. The service was amazing though, and who am I kidding, I've been there for drinks before!

And yes, brunch was free to us, but my opinions are my own.

Island Creek Oyster Bar with the Boston Brunchers

I usually blog about food that I make, so reviewing meals is new to me. Here goes.....

I've been pretty active on twitter since moving back to Boston (this also coincides with getting a smartphone) and am following Renee and some of the other Boston Brunchers. When I saw that (1) the anniversary brunch was at Island Creek Oyster Bar (and I follow them on twitter too...) and that (2) Renee was giving away some tickets to non-brunchers I was psyched. Definitely a challenge to myself to win one - and I did, from Sue at Public Radio Kitchen, who I ended up sitting with during brunch in fact (but I was a little hungover and it took us a while to put this together).

We had gone to Somerville Local First's Harvestfest the night before, so I was desperately in need of some coffee when we showed up. Fun fact: Island Creek brews coffee from Jim's Organic Coffee. I met their New England sales rep the following weekend at Head of the Charles, and Mike was awesome enough to give me a bag of coffee to try. They are a local, green company so it's cool to see restaurants using quality local products!

It was great to eat with other local bloggers too (Eating Places, The Economical Eater, Doves and Figs, The Passionate Foodie, and Baking Me Hungry).

First up, we ordered drinks. I went for the bloody mary, sort of a hair of the dog thing. It was definitely good and with the spiciness helped bring me out of my fog.


We also had an amazing pastry basket in front of us. I could have eaten them all, but went for the sticky bun. It was not too sweet which was wonderful, and had good texture, not like a sticky ball of dough at all.


There were 4 choices for brunch, but our table went with either the lobster roll or the french toast with sautéed apples. I went with the lobster roll to get the savory after the pastry basket, but the French toast looked and smelled amazing.


The lobster roll was awesome. It's always a good problem when you can't determine the best way to eat something. I did the slice in half and eat with hands. The rosemary bun on this lobster roll is not to be missed.

The other fantastic part of brunch was our ridiculous goodie bags from the brunch sponsors (below). Renee did a fabulous job getting sponsors, and my mom and husband were super impressed with what I brought home.

America's Test Kitchen
Barefoot Wine
Biba
Biltmore Bar and Grill
Boston Ballet
Boston Center for Adult Education
Boston Food Finds
Cow and Crumb
Cumberland Farms
Dorado Tacos & Cemitas
Dore Creperie
Doves and Figs Kitchen
Eversave Boston
Foodies of New England
The Four Seasons Boston
Haircuttery
Harvard Common Press
iParty
Klout
KO Catering & Pies
Langham Hotel Boston
Phillips Candy House
Pinkberry
Pretzel Crisps
Popchips
Stages of Beauty
Stonyfield
USA Pears

Brunch was gratis, but my opinions are my own.

Sunday Champagne Brunch

The Spread:

Clockwise from the melon:
Cantaloupe, coffee cake, eggs (which SB made for us) & potatoes, banana bread, raspberry scones, mimosa, cranberry muffins.