Park Avenue Spring Brunch Review
This restaurant continues to impress me with the dawn of each new season. Two years ago it was Park Avenue Winter's black pepper-crusted, seared-to-perfection ahi tuna which won my heart. This time it is Park Avenue Spring's generous brunch prix fixe, to which I raise a stiff mint julep. Stephanie, my dining companion on both occassions, initially introduced me to the restaurant and it was on my recommendation that we try their brunch.
We arrived on a warm Saturday and were immediately seated in their cherry blossom adorned dining room (if you hadn't guessed, the restaurant theme, including name, decor and food, changes with the seasons).
Fresh pastries - enough to make a meal - were presented along with raspberry jam and apple butter. Please bear with me while I digress for a moment. Apple butter is one of my most favorite childhood food memories. My babysitter, Mamaw - a 75-year-old salt-of-the-earth West Virginian (her husband, a coal miner, died of "black lung" before I can ever remember meeting him) - was raised with an apple butter-making tradition. She had an old copper kettle, passed down for generations, big enough that two of me could have fit into it and blackened on the outside from many years of sitting over an open fire. Each autumn we would pick the apples in her orchard and we'd spend days peeling, slicing, spicing, cooking, stirring and ultimately jarring the apple butter, which would be stored in her cellar to be brought out for a special treat every so often. I don't eat apple butter often as an adult, but when I do, it is always a pleasant trip down memory lane.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled program...The pastries marched down the plate: a berry muffin, banana bread, pistachio loaf, cinnamon bun, sugared doughnut. We quickly realized we needed to sample only a quarter of each pastry, lest we fill up before the next two courses.
As it was Kentucky Derby Day, we really had no choice but to indulge in mint juleps:
Our appetizers were exact opposites: Stephanie enjoyed a salmon tartare while I had Greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey, granola and dried fruit. The yogurt and accoutrements were presented beautifully in their own individual serving dishes on a marble plate:
As our entree choices, Stephanie went with a rich breakfast risotto teeming with sliced sausage, mushrooms and a fried egg on top. The dish was incredibly flavorful albeit heavy for a warm Spring day. I kept with the Southern theme in ordering a fried chicken 'n waffles sandwich. This was not the highlight of the meal: the chicken a far cry from the crispy goodness I've become accustomed to in the South (or places like The Redhed) and the waffles a bland, too soft afterthought of the dish. The sandwich wasn't bad by any means; it simply wasn't the highlight.
It should be noted that this brunch is expensive. The prix fixe alone is $35, not including drinks, so the addition of mint juleps brought the price up to $50/person. This is a great option for a special occasion brunch, such as for a birthday, Mother's Day or some other celebration.
