Westchester Breakfast Club

Sweet Grass Grill
24 North Main Street
Tarrytown, NY 10591 (Map It!)

Attendees: Sylvia, Pat, Andrew, Yuee, Jeffrey

Sylvia

This week, we were semi back to normal. The czar was back from her trip over yonder, but two members were unable to join us. Missing them terribly, we put on our brave faces and ventured into Tarrytown to the Sweet Grass Grill.

Brunch starts at 11am, and we promptly arrived at 11am. We were the first ones in the place, but since it seemed that many of the tables were reserved, it took the staff a little bit of time to figure out how to seat the five of us at a free table. We ended up sitting at a table for four with an extra chair at the end. The interior was going for a fake countryside rustic bistro feel. Complete with fake windows and shutters along a wall opposite the real windows the the street. The color scheme was bright with various colors occupying each wall.

We had actually arrived in two parts. The first group consisted of the Louie’s while the last arrival was Pat. As we waited for Pat to find a parking spot (Tarrytown on a Sunday can be a parking hell…but it’s all free parking), our waiter took our drink orders. After Pat had arrived and we had gone through recapping our respective weekend happenings, our drinks have still not arrived nor has our waiter ever returned to ask if Pat wanted anything. It really was not that busy, we were maybe one of three parties there at the time.

Because of the above mentioned timeline of events, we had more than ample time to peruse the brunch menu. Everything sounded delicious, although, it all seemed more steered towards the lunch half of brunch. Wanting to stick a more breakfast-y meal, I was torn between the french toast, breakfast burrito and the Sweet Grass Torta. Since Pat had dibs on the french toast, and Jeffrey called the Torta, that left me with the breakfast burrito.

Unfortunatly, the breakfast burrito was not available (Someone got lazy?). So I chose the Sweet Grass Torta, which is, as per the menu “eggs fried in croutons, braised pork, mustard and greens”. We also got a basket of beignets and a basket of muffins with jam. I also had a pineapple juice to go with my meal.

The Basket of muffins arrived first. The basket consisted of five perfectly warmed corn muffins and a little dish of orange marmalade. The muffins were actually very good. the edges of the muffin were perfectly crisp, while the rest of the muffin was moist, which is not usually the case amoung corn muffins. The orange marmalade gave the muffin a nice sweetness without overwhelming the texture of the muffin to the point of confusion, which can happen when anything but butter is used on a corn muffin.

The bowl of freshly made beignets were lightly dusted with powdered sugar and were so fresh, they were still hot to the touch of those who eagerly reached into the bowl for one. The beignets were hot and quite excellent.

So far so good….except for one thing. As enjoyable as those two items were, it felt that Sweet Grass is pretty skimpy with the dish ware. I guess a restaurant that believes in the use of carefully sourced meat and locally grown produce also believes that eating anything before your main course shall best be enjoyed au natural, or without dishes.

But thankfully our main courses arrived, served in dishware. My torta was interesting, and not exactly what I had imagined. Remember in the movie, Robin Hood Men in Tights, when Latrine made King John that omelette with all that stuff like the lizard eyes and etc? It kind of looked like that, except the stuff was chunks of croutons , and the egg was simply two fried eggs. So, it was more like fried eggs with croutons on top as opposed to the description of eggs fried in croutons. The braised pork, on the other hand, was a lovely thick slab of pork that was excellent and very attractivly perched on top of the egg. I found the eggs over cooked. I think it would have been tastier if the egg wasn’t cooked so long and the yolk was left to be a little runnier. Besides the doness of the eggs, the dish was actually quite tasty. Under the egg was some delicious mustard and spinach. The combination was pretty darn good. The mustard was mildly spicy, which gave each bite a pleasant kick.

The Czar says: For the price I paid, I kind of expected a little more food, and honestly, better service. The dish would have been perfect (in my humble opinion) if the yolks had been left a little runny and there was some toast to mop it all up. Otherwise, the food was excellent. I do wonder if making a reservation also means more attentive service. Mind you, when we left, none of the other tables (with and without reserved signs, had been occupied yet) I was interested in trying their dinner, but I’m now definitely not jumping at the chance. Although, if I do, reservations might be in order to not feel so second class.

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Pat

What I Had: French Toast, half a muffin, a beignet, coffee

What It Cost:

Worth It: Just barely

The Rating: Food – 4.25/5, Price 2.5/5, Service 3/5 Overall: 3.5/5

The Details: It was a carb-heavy breakfast at the Tarrytown-based Sweetgrass Grill, apparently a new addition to the neighborhood that seems to target an upscale clientele. It took far too long after I arrived to actually place my drink order. Fortunately, the coffee was above average enough to offset the delay. And that, in a nutshell, was my Sweetgrass experience: Poor service, good food.

We started with an order of muffins and an order of beignets for the table. This was, by far, the most reasonably priced portion of the meal. There were four muffins and five beignets in each order, both of which ran only five dollars an order. The muffins were corn, delicious, and came with an orange marmalade that really added a wonderfully citrus-y tang. The beignets were not as good, a bit heavy on the dough and light on the powdered sugar.

The highlight was the french toast. Two huge slices of sour dough bread, perfectly prepared and served with powdered sugar, maple syrup, and generous portion of strawberries. At $12.00, however, and coming with no side dishes, they were radically overpriced. In fact, most of the menu appeared overpriced. At the end of the day, I plopped twenty dollars down for my meal, and with tax and tip, the five of us coughed up nearly $120.00. That’s way too much for a casual brunch with poor service. And in the end, that was my response to Sweetgrass; really good food, just overpriced. If money’s not an object, give it a try. But don’t go when you’re trying to stick to a budget.

The Bottom Line: Give it a shot but bring your wallet.

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Andrew

a ranch looking place featuring local artists on the walls that
consisted mostly of sheep and owls in a semi impressionist style.
Arriving at 11am, we were the first ones there for their sunday brunch
special, but several tables had already been reserved. We ordered some
of their muffins and bingets, which are like little zeppolis. these
pastries were actually pretty good except they neglected to give us
any plates to eat them off of, so after each bite, we simply balanced
the remainder of the pastry on our up-turned chin until we were ready
to take another bite. It would have looked strange if there was anyone
sitting near us to see it. I avoided this problem by eating it in a
single bite

I ordered the salmon and poached soft egg. When my food came out, it
was not hot, but not cold and most disappointing was that the
soft-poached egg came out semi-solid and not very runny at all. Other
than that, the salmon, sauce and potatoes were delicious. the salmon
was well seasoned and cooked just right. The green sauce has the
consistency of hollandaise sauce and had a taste that not at all
unlike pesto.

Overall the meal was one of the better ones I’ve had at this breakfast
club. The prices here were on the high end, with the salmon weighing
in at 15 dollars. It would have been worth it if the soft poached egg
was actually soft poached, and if it came with a little more starch
like potatoes or toast and more sauce.

I wouldn’t recommend this place on their poached eggs.

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Yuee

In front of the Sweet Grass Grill are small lawn chairs and round coffee tables under their awning. Inside the restaurant is decorated as the outside of a house, pots of grass along the side and canvases of three sheep and owl. The interior walls are painted green and one side of the wall have molding of the front door. The decor fits the name perfectly, an atmosphere of a grassy outdoor inside the restaurant.

The brunch menu was a delight. It offers sophistication with its salmon over poached egg, a classic with sourdough French toast, an everyday favorite with scrambled eggs with sausage and a daring buttermilk fried chicken for brunch. There is something for every personality.

My order was a bit customized to test the skill of the brunch cook and for my love of a good poached egg! I ordered poached eggs with my grilled sausage. It came out in a big bowl on a big plate. The toast was on the side of the plate and inside the bowl rest my poached eggs with four halved sausages.

Presentation: I have to admit, the presentation with the bowl and plate is a little much. There was not a lot of food, everything would have fit perfectly on a plate. The bowl and plate set up made cutting the sausage a bit cumbersome.

Egg: Cooking good eggs is the test of all breakfast cooks. Cooking a good poached egg is the test of skill. (Warning: Poached eggs are not always a safe item to try at a restaurant, poorly cooked poached eggs may induce upset stomach.) Luckily, I did not regret trying out the poached eggs at Sweet Grass Grill. My two poached eggs were round and silky smooth. It was cooked a little bit toward the well side, while I would prefer medium cooked with little running yolk.

Sausage: The sausages were high quality and delicious. It was not the ground meat sausage found on most breakfast plates. The sausage was meaty and solid. It also has a rich flavor of spices. I think it complimented the poached eggs very well — strong flavors from the sausage and the silky smooth eggs in every bite.

I find the food at Sweet Grass Grill to be fresh, high quality, and well prepared. I am very happy with the Breakfast Club’s choice! I only wish someone would have ordered the Buttermilk Fried Chicken, the most expensive brunch dish. Hopefully, there will be a next time and a daring diner will be in the group.

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Jeffrey

I have been to the sweet grass grill once before. About a year ago, I had gone for dinner. I don’t remember the food at all from that day. I do remember the weather. It was hot and muggy and we had decided to sit outside. Maybe that’s why I can’t remember what really happened. Either way, this most recent experience was a much more pleasant one.

So many choices to choose from and only one stomach to fill. This was my dilemma today. To start, should I have a mimosa, juice, or coffee? I needed to go for coffee. I always get coffee. I always like the coffee, unless I don’t and I write about it. But this coffee was good. I didn’t mind getting a refill on my cup. I also didn’t mind another refill after the second cup.

The next issue was the choice of pastry. Should we get the muffins or the beignets (which we pronounced beg-nets)? Well, we decided on both. We got a basket of each and shared them among the table. The muffins resembled corn muffins. With the spread they had, which seemed like some sort of marmalade, it was tasty. The beignets were hot out of the oil with a light sprinkling of powdered sugar. I’m happy about the light powdering. A thick coat would have ruined them. One issue that bothered me was the fact that they did not have plates for us to use before the main meal was presented. This meant the muffins and beignets had to be eaten off our napkins. Points off, Sweet Grass. Points off. Especially since the beignets were hot. I didn’t want to sit there and have my fingers burning.

The Main Entree choice. So here we have the most selection. I wanted something filling, but I wanted something that would hit me with a lot of flavor. I chose the Sweet Grass Torta over the Buttermilk Fried Chicken. Good choice, if I do say so myself. The torta consisted of two fried eggs over spinach and mustard. The menu says “in croutons” but the croutons were thrown on top almost like an after thought. The braised pork was also slapped onto the top of the meal. It felt more like an obstruction then part of the meal. The flavors were there. The mustard mixed well with the spinach and the eggs, but the presentation was lack luster at best. One saving grace was the sweet potato fries I had ordered. I love potatoes. I love potatoes in almost all forms. I was happy with the sweet potato fries.

All in all, was the food good? Yes. Yes it was. Could the presentation use a little work? Yes. Yes it could. Was it worth the price that we paid? I don’t think so. It seemed rather over priced. They boast their use of words like all natural, holistic organic, farm fresh. I suppose in that case it would be worth it. Maybe I’m not ready to dig deep into my wallet to eat the healthier for you foods. Also, I didn’t have any cash on me that day, so others paid for me. Don’t worry Westchester Breakfast Club. I got you covered for next time.

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