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| - Had brunch there today with my husband and daughter. Would they come back? Most definitely not. Would I come back? Maybe, in a year or two assuming they stay in business.
Would I encourage people to try this place? Yes, but on a leisurely day, and not when you want to impress or be impressed.
The space is pleasant: ample outside seating, high ceilings, narrow hall running east west with plenty of light coming in from both ends. They have a limited but ample menu with items that conceptually sound delicious. (You know, like Tuck and Astor House.)
After more than 40 minutes of waiting, we had:
1. boxty (grated apple & potato pancakes, honey mascarpone, choice of meat). The grated apple is not cooked into the pancakes but put on top. Honey mascarpone was sickeningly sweet, and pancakes were peppery -- weird combination. I picked sausage as my meat choice but it wasn't served with my boxty. I asked the server "Was I supposed to get sausage with my boxty?" She responded, "I don't know, were you?" I showed her the menu and the sausages were brought out shortly; but response was borderline rude and at best it showed she didn't know the menu which had 12 items on it.
2. johnnycakes (corn and chiles, stack of three, sweet rice & fruit, choice of meat). This might have been the best item from the three that we ordered. The pancakes were beautifully browned; like fluffy cornbread. But something was missing to tie the flavors of the pancakes, sausage, sweet rice & fruit together. Maybe syrup? Maybe a butter chile sauce? But the sweet rice needs to go.
3. piperrada (fry up of pork shoulder, green & red peppers, tomato, onion, two eggs on top). The number one ingredient in the entree description was barely there. Hubby did the rude thing of picking his food apart right after it came, maybe because he was not happy that his first two picks (grillades and mexican benedict) were not available. Table manners aside, when he removed the two eggs from the top of the pile, the underneath was mostly red and green peppers and onions. If you pieced together the pork shoulder pieces like a jigsaw puzzle, it might have ended up being the size of a small bacon strip. Tomatoes were also missing. Two separate people asked if everything was going ok and my hubby told both of them that he was not happy about the pork shoulder. But nothing was offered, no substitution, no refund, nada.
I don't remember the last time my husband complained in a restaurant. That is usually my gig, and even I don't often do it. Today I had a feeling any complaints would fall on deaf ears. We had to wait quite a while for a food and during that time I saw several customers going to the counter making non-positive gesticulations and being met with a response that I could lip read as "So sorry." I also saw four very frustrated cooks who spent quite a bit of time looking at the ticket items while very little food was coming out of the kitchen.
We felt bad for everyone: the cooks, the owners, the patrons, and us. Such a downer for a brunch.
From our table, I ate the most food in hopes of eventually understanding the concept from each dish. (If it matters, I wear size 0 pants and am not prone to just eating anything and everything.) In the end, while my daughter looked at me in disdain, I told her I just needed the calories to make up for the effort in getting there, for the wait, and for the money spent.
Supporting local businesses is a must, but it shouldn't be painful. I think Vovomeena could be good someday if it works out its kinks. But I'll wait a long while before I risk another downer of a brunch again.
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