Brunch

I agree with k about a lot of things, but this brunch v. lunch thing is not one of them. Brunch is partly about the sort of food you order, partly about the time of day, but MOSTLY about the attitude you have toward how you are eating. Lunch is a hurried thing that you grab quickly to assuage your hunger so that you can get back to working, or to allow the tension you've built up over the day to dissipate just enough so that you can work again. Brunch is slow. Brunch is about the company and the food, and usually about a little booze. If you're waiting for lunch for more than 20 min. you're irate. If you're waiting for brunch for under 20 min. you either don't notice or you're amazed that the service is so fast.

That said, RTR is wonderful. They do fancy without pretense. You go there and you see the ridiculous wall and the delicious menu with somewhat different foods, but you don't think "damn I should have worn nicer clothing". Well, I don't, but I tend not to feel that way in Wburg where everything is ridiculous. I feel that way when I actually think "I don't own anything nicer, there is no way I could ever dress appropriately for this place, I am a charlatan." I hadn't been for a long time and it was nice to be back.

So first the wait. I have a new found respect for Lodge. Their waiting area is wonderful. RTR, I guess in order to be profitable, or to feed as many as possible, has the entire floor covered in 2 tops, so no one can really wait comfortably for a table. Happily Oslo is a half block away and has the best macchiato I've ever had so I was happy. (a breakdown of where I drink coffee and what I get at each place is most. def. in the works). We get seated by our smiling, friendly, and competent (or at least competent seeming, which is like 85% of competence anyway) hostess.

Our silent waiter came over and I got the same faux rock shandy that Kendall described below and it was great. I really like being able to get something other than a screw-driver or bloody marry for brunch sometimes, so well done! I also ordered this dish that had 4 things on it: a tiny silver cup with apple butter, 2 large and thick slices of fennel-raisin toast (with cornmeal on the edges ... and srsly, there is not enough cornmeal in the north), a tiny souffle cup with grits and white grated soft white cheddar on top and another with 2 baked eggs topped with the perfect amount of cheddar.

It was a lovely, well balanced, and good sized without being too filling meal. The toast was probably my favorite part. It was sweet (but not too), warm, and just amazing. The grits were tasteful, which is I guess the best thing I can say about grits if it even makes sense to say. The eggs, well, I love eggs. I like 'em baked. I should say for the sake of full disclosure that the yolk were cooked all the way through so that they were yellow and not golden, but this didn't detract from the meal at all. We weren't rushed out even though it was WBpeak brunch hour, but we were well taken care of which is really nice.

Of course all of this would have been wasted if the company hadn't been so good, but the jokes and stories were flowing freely (no doubt facilitated by the great dining experience).