Rosebud – Davis Square, Somerville, MA

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Sarah

If you’ve ever been here before, you know that I fucking love to the point of marrying despite not really seeing the point of marriage as state institution because isn’t there better and just as cheap ways to get all those protections? The Painted Burro. They do the best damn Mexican brunch I’ve ever had, and if we can’t think of a place to go and are the same timezone as Davis Square I will suggest going there. I bring this up because the same guy who owns PB owns Rosebud, an adorable diner right next door. When I heard this I knew I had to try their brunch, if only in an effort to have two restaurants I would want to drive several hours for, should I somehow be kidnapped and wake up in the political wasteland of New Hampshire.

I found instead a decent brunch place. Which is fine, but after the Burro I was expecting “fuck yeah!”s and “holy shits!” all over the place. There was only one plate served to us that was that exact thing, so I’m going to completely ignore the okay french toast and acceptable omelet that Talls and I had and just devote this post to the one shining, unfuckingbelievable glory of this meal:

HUSHPUPPIES SENT FROM LOUISVILLE.

Did you hear the angels playing horns out of their asses to the glory of these hush puppies? If you didn’t I guess you’re a boring food-hating dickwad or something. Or maybe you haven’t seen a lot of illuminated manuscripts. One of those.

To begin, aside from the bacon and scallion amazingness that just cranks these fuckers up to eleven, these are just well made hushpuppies. What are hushpuppies, you say? One of the fine fried fruits of the South, my friend! It’s a ball of fried cornmeal batter. When well done they are crisp on the outside, warm and a little crumbly on the inside, and have never been polluted by the racist horror that is that bitch Paula Deen. These hushpuppies are well done. AND THEN they also have diced bacon and scallions inside that manage to add just the right amount of flavor without taking over from the down home corn taste. AND THEN they give a fucking pineapple-chili glaze to dip them in so that your tastebuds explode with delight and you are ruined for deliciousness for the rest of your life.

I can’t, you guys. I can’t even. Look how little I’ve sworn in this entry! Do you know why that is? It’s because I’m dazzled by the goddamn memory of these little nuggets of perfection. Ugh. I don’t give a fuck if you grew up with hushpuppies or you’ve never had them in your life: get your ass to Rosebud and eat as many of these things as you can. Get a drink. Take a pie home, since they get good pie reviews and honestly any place that does hushpups well likely bakes a fine-ass pie. The rest of the menu isn’t bad, but these balls of deliciousness are too amazing to waste your time eating anything else.

My Other Kitchen – Belmont, MA

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Sarah

My Other Kitchen – does not appear to have a website so the link goes to Yelp

This is the second place I drive past every day on my way to work, but it was small enough and busy enough I’ve again managed to never stop by. Come the weekend I packed Talls into the car and drove like a bat out of hell to try and get one of the few tables – which are all outdoors, by the way. The tables were already all taken because the weather was fucking gorgeous. Fall mornings in New England are the best. We went in and ordered anyway, as there is an inside bar as a last resort. Talls waited for the food while I stalked diners outside, and my creepieness paid off! We ended up with a table in the shade near an adorable English ex-pat family and fucking delicious food.

The special was caramelized pear french toast. Guess who ate this?

The coffee was delightful and unending, while the orange juice was delicious and doled out in small, expensive amounts. I’m honestly surprised this isn’t the case more often with fresh squeezed, but there you are. The french toast was just as rediculously fucking tasty as it looks in that picture.

Talls had a cast iron breakfast, complete with actual cast iron pan.

There was chorizo, scrambled eggs, hash browns, cheddar cheese, and one home made cornbread muffin in this pile of noms. I think the white stuff is yogurt, but I’m entirely sure. Regardless, all of this was consumed and I was able to steal very little for myself.

This is a tiny place that has little indoor seating, so lines happen here with ease. As long as the weather holds it’ll be a bitching place to eat, and when that falls apart it will become an amazing place to eat out from. The only thing it’s missing is an indoor dining area, but with the winters Massachusetts gets that’s a pretty big thing.

The Sweet Peach Diner – Belmont, MA

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Sarah

The Sweet Peach Diner

This is a place I drive past every single morning on my way to work, and every time I ask myself: why the fuck am I not stopping and shoveling food into my mouth instead continuing on into the office? Luckily the traffic around there in the morning is a bitch so there’s no easy way to park and lose my job to deliciousness. I finally got there recently when Talls and I wanted to go to a new brunch place but not drive too far.

This place has excellent food, and as I said up there, fuck all for parking. There’s a tiny amount on the street, and a parking lot got the local nature reserve not too far away. If you come at a classic brunch time like 10 on a Sunday, this place is packed. We did this and ended up eating at the counter because there were no tables available, and still had a great meal. Wonderful servers, a nice set up, and great food can’t be beat.

The Sweet Peach Stuffed French Toast. It is as fantastic as it looks.

Me? Eat French toast? I know, so fucking shocking. This pile of deliciousness was jam packed with peaches, fresh whipped cream, and all around tastiness. It also came with real maple syrup, because this place knows where the hell it is: New Fucking England.

There was also bacon. A lady needs protein.

The Tallsasaurus went for something hashy, as is his wont, although this time in Eggs benedict form. It was on cornbread instead of biscuits, and was fabulous. There’s also a pulled pork benedict on their menu that I will have to try sometime.

The hash benedict. Also crazy good.

Final verdict? Get your ass over to Belmont, find some way to park, and go eat at this diner whenever you can. They know what the fuck they’re doing brunchwise, and they do it well.

Helen’s Restaurant – Concord, MA

Posted on April 18, 2014 by Sarah

Helen’s Restaurant – no website, goes to Yelp! page.

I grew up in Concord, and still remember when this place was Brigham’s. Alas, there is but one Brigham’s left – the original in Arlington, MA. Helen’s replaced Brigham’s a while back, and makes some very tasty food. I also can’t speak highly enough about their raspberry lime rickies, the very first carbonated beverage I actually liked.

Okay, enough fucking nostalgia. On to the brunch!

The food was so good I forgot to take pictures before I started eating.

I was out with Talls and a friend, and if one of them hadn’t reminded me I wouldn’t have even snapped these photos. The blueberry pancakes were lovely, as was my requisite real maple syrup. I also enjoyed my bacon, which was thicker than other places and still wonderfully crunchy.

The home fries were gigantic and wonderful.

The plates were huge and so were the portions. The coffee is very much diner coffee, which I more than enjoyed. Talls, the non-coffee citrus connoisseur, reported that the orange juice was delicious.

Seriously forgot to snap pictures.

Key things to note:

This place gets busy fast when the local churches let out, so basically after 11 it’s a mad house on Sundays. If you’re willing to wait you’ll be well taken care of – the waitresses are all pros who know how to make a packed house run smooth.
Many families with small children means it can get loud and kid-like. I’ve never had a problem with this, but if kids around at all isn’t your thing this place may not work for you.
This place is CASH ONLY. There are plenty of ATMs walkably nearby in town.

If you’re in the area to Walden Pond or North Bridge it and it’s brunch time, hit this place up for some great down home dinner food.

The Ball Square Cafe – Somerville, MA

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Sarah

Ball Square Cafe

Holy fuck there are lines at this place. There are so often lines there were fucking heaters in the awning above our line. The coffee is self serve even when you sit down partially to let line-standers drink coffee while they wait. If you hate lines this is not the brunch for you. On the plus side: this place has heaters and coffee for you when you stand in line, so as waiting outside for a table at a brunch place goes, it’s pretty damn comfortable. My little party of three waited for about 20 minutes for a table at 10:45am on a Sunday. We were attempting to arrive early to skip the wait when we did this, and were clearly utter fools. Ah well. Ball Square Cafe is small, but they apparently own a deli next door that was being used only for overflow seating when we went.

Seriously though, coffee in line!

I didn’t mind the line too much with my purple marshmallow coat, coffee, and lovely people to chat with. The wait also gave us time to decide what we were all going to have before we sat down, so we got our food pretty quickly. Our waitress was awesome and memorized my order when I told it to my friends so they could order for me while I ran to get a coffee refill.

I, as I am sure you are shocked to hear, went for the french toast. A pear and goat cheese french toast, to be exact. They have many delicious-sounding options, but I’ve never heard of a stuffing quite like this. The slices were ginormous and I only finished two of them. I completed the delicious meal with real maple syrup and bacon.

Those white lumps are Cool Whip. 😦 Not my store-bought whipped cream of choice.

My friends had the Eggs Benedict with Hash and the Caramelized Banana with Walnuts Belgian Waffle, which I sampled and were both lovely. Their eyes were a better size in comparison to their stomachs, so they were able to finish their meals. I, on the other hand, got to take my last slice home in an adorable container and relive this glorious experience as part of lunch on Monday.

So many noms, you guys.

I recommend this place unless you can’t deal with lines without whining constantly/breaking into hives/flipping the fuck out. They have a picture of one of their lines as a header on their website. A line is going to happen here. But for those who are willing to chat standing up for a bit, it will be well worth it.

Mike’s City Diner – Boston, MA

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Sarah

Do you need vast amounts of omelet in the South End of Boston and you’re willing to wait in line for great food? If so, Mike’s City Diner is the brunch niche for you. It has also been reported to me that their lunch on weekdays is grand, but I cannot speak to this. Brunch on the weekend here is breakfast only.

Mike’s serves you an amazing amount of food.

This is a SMALL serving.

The french toast is also delivered in the above stick/slab form, which is glorious. The white glob on the right is a plastic container filled with butter, which always upside down on your bread product for easy of application.

Mike’s specializes in the egg side of the breakfast spectrum, and if you like a wide array of omelets this is an excellent place to eat. They have their standards, like the Southender.

A gigantic classic.

And their specials, like the Cambridge.

Seriously, there’s an entire avocado on that thing.

Starch fiend that I am, I went for the belgian waffle buried under a pile of fresh fruit.

With real maple syrup on the side, of course.

That bacon in the background was also mine, since protein is an import part of starting one’s day. It was that thin, crispy, diner bacon, and it was excellent.

Mike’s always has a line because it’s so good and also rather small. The meals they serve are entirely worth the wait in my mind, but if you think lines are the worst thing ever then this may not be the joint for you. It’s not too bad especially if you go early, but at 11am on a Sunday my party of four sat in about 30 to 45 minutes. Really, just go by yourself and grab a counter space or have friends you can talk to for the extra time. You will be buried in delicious food and so glad you did.

Brunch the Fuck Up

pretentious yet edible

Tag Archives: Lines but worth it