Breakfast Today #6

Breakfast Today #5

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Joe’s Grill: A Quick Review

It was happenstance that I bumped into a good friend outside Joe’s Grill yesterday, just an hour or so after they had opened up for their first day of business on the Drive. Having brunch at the new place seemed a natural.

Joe’s Grill already has three locations in Vancouver, on Denman, Davie, and Main. For their Commercial Drive location they have slotted into a space on the east side of the 900-block that has a less than illustrious history for restaurants; it has been vacant for 10 months since Nonna’s failed after just a few months of business following a previous 10 months of vacancy since the earlier failure of Adeline’s.

The interior of the space has been modified somewhat, making it much more appealing and open than it was before; it felt comfortable and welcoming. It still has the lovely patio, where we chose to eat on what was another fine summer’s day.  Service was excellent: prompt, efficient, and courteous. That could be a challenge on a restaurant’s first day, but they managed it well.

The menu is standard breakfast and lunch fare. The Commercial Drive location hasn’t made it to their website yet, so I have linked to the menu on Davie Street.  However, the Drive menu seemed shorter, with less choices. My friend had corned beef hash and scrambled eggs; his looked good and he declared himself satisfied with it. I had the classic eggs benny, my usual test for a diner.  Mine came with country fried potatoes. The benny was fine — the egg cooked exactly to my specifications — but, as is usual in many breakfast joints, the hollandaise was a little bland, as if they forgot there was supposed to be lemon juice in it.

With coffee and tip, but without toast, my breakfast came to about $16. This is about the same as Zawa’s, the Euro Cafe, or the Tangent. The everloving and I usually spend about $20 for two breakfasts with toast and coffee at Skylight and their portions are bigger (as they are, too, at the Tangent for example).  But it is a nice place and the patio is a real plus.

Joe’s Grill’s timing for their opening is both good and potentially bad. Good because the Skylight in the next block is closed for vacations for the next few weeks; I am certain that many of Skylight’s regulars, like me, will give the new place a try during that time.  Potentially bad news is that the Bosa’s store next door to Joe’s will close in September when their rebuilt store on Victoria re-opens. Joe’s will lose the foot traffic that Bosa brings to that corner, and they will have to hope both that another restaurant chain doesn’t take the large space then available or that the double-wide vacancy doesn’t bring a sense of desolation.

My friend and I were the only customers when we arrived but by the time we left the place was quite busy. I wish them well!

Dinner Tonight #27

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Zuppa Arcidossana: hot Italian sausage, spinach and carrot soup, garnished with feta cheese. This was from Mark Bittman back in 2009 and we have made it regularly ever since.  Really good stuff.

Dinner Tonight #26

Here is the mise-en-place for what turned out to be a really good puttanesca, one of our absolute favourites.

Dinner Tonight #25

Pork vegetables, and peanut butter stew.  A favourite for many decades, originally by James Barber.

Dinner Tonight #24

 

The mise-en-place for tonight’s wonderful cottage pie (the potatoes were boiling elsewhere in splendid isolation). Satisfying food certainly doesn’t need to be complicated.