the place at perry’s

Posted: February 13th, 2011 | Author: Olivia | Filed under: oFoodie | No Comments »

i bought a groupon a couple months ago for $30 worth of brunch… so why not schedule it the day before valentine’s for me and the g-man? SURE!

when: 12:30 pm, sunday
wait: none (reservation, although they had lost it…)
customer service: A
food rating: A

i’ve heard good things about this place and was filled with anticipation as i drove uptown. as a sister restaurant to perry’s steakhouse & grill, which we had sampled in austin with my family a couple years ago, i knew that if it was anything like perry’s, it would be good.

situated at the corner of routh and cedar springs, i found parking quite easily along the side of the road. walked up the large steps to the double wooden doors into a darkened lobby/waiting area. took my eyes a second to adjust to the lighting as it was bright inside and was greeted by the hostess. unfortunately, my reservation via opentable wasn’t in there system… even though i had gotten a confirmation email the night before… but we were quickly seated anyways.

the place is super quiet. g and i were definitely the youngest there, although we were seated next to another asian couple who were probably a couple years older than us. everyone else were definitely in their late 40′s/50′s and beyond. i felt a little out of place in the beginning to be honest. the decor is very “old classic” – not really sure how to describe. but there are aged photos hanging on the walls of celebrities who have visited and the deep mahogany of the furniture gives it a rich, classic feel. it was a little funny though that their chairs are all scuffed and when the couple next to us left and the waiter was changing out the linens, the table underneath was terribly scratched and beaten. good thing for tablecloths…

our waitress was very nice and friendly. we started off with some drinks, the orange sun for me (oj, proseco and aparol) and morning nector for g (infused pineapple and prickly pear tequila mixed with oj, agave nectar and a hint of ginger). both were good. i liked mine better because it wasn’t as strong. we were brought an assortment of bread that included a jalapeno/cheese bread and cornbread. loooved the cornbread. delish! then we put our orders in:

the place’s deluxe benedict - by far, the most expensive at $20, but SO WORTH IT. i had originally skipped over the benedict/omelette section since i’ve never been a huge fan of dishes focused around eggs. g however saved me and pointed this particular one out to me and i just had to have it. consisting of two grilled artichoke bottoms each topped with jumbo lump crabmeat and poached egg with crawfish hollandaise… how can you beat that?! when the plate was set in front of me i wanted to curl up and die with happiness. the eggs were perfectly cooked and you can’t go wrong with crabmeat and artichoke. the dish was also served with some sort of starch and i’m still not sure what it was. it was like a purple yam and i even stretched to say it might have been taro. but it was goooood, especially when dipping it into the leftover egg yolk.

chicken & waffles – g couldn’t resist this sweet temptation, and for what you get for $12? yeah, definitely a good deal. a crispy chicken breast served over a fluffy belgian waffle with maple praline syrup – yum. although i only had one bite, it was good and g ate as much as he could (half) before he surrendered and took the rest to go.

carrot cake french toast – this was so intriguing that we had to get it to share. not really sure where the french toast part of this was, but it was very tasty. again, i only had a bite since my benedict filled me, but the cake was moist and the warm icing on top gave it a very comforting feel. this was great as an after-brunch “dessert” for those that like things on the heavier side.

summary – very delicious and i’m itching to go back just to have the deluxe benedict again. it will be hard to tear me away to try other things. by the time we left, the place had livened up a bit, so maybe we went too early. but it’s still a quieter brunch place than normal – so if you’re looking to giggle and gossip with your girlfriends over mimosas after mimosas… would recommend to go somewhere that you won’t feel like a spectacle. like i said – old classic.

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