Westchester Breakfast Club

Shelley

Two hour meals seem to be a trend for the WBC as of late.

What happened this week?

As you may recall (shame on you if you don’t), about a month and a half ago the WBC wound up at the Croton Diner, after being unable to get to our intended Croton destination, the Tavern, due to the fact that the hours of operation listed on their website don’t match up with reality. Well, this week Sylvia called to confirm the hours and we agreed to meet at the Tavern at 11am (an hour after opening). We left a little after 1pm. That’s right, we went from am to pm over the course of our meal. Why? Let’s find out.

The Tavern is quite small, and dimly lit. Cozy is a word I often use, and I’ll use it again now: The Tavern has a cozy atmosphere. I arrived first and it took a minute or two for someone to actually come to the front of the restaurant and seat me. When I stated that we were going to be a party of 5 or 6 the girl looked around at the full tables and told me that it might be awhile. I then pointed to the completely empty table for six directly behind her and asked if it was available. She said she’d have to go check, disappeared into the kitchen for a moment, and then came back and informed me with a smile that yes, I could in fact have that table. The rest of our group trickled in within the next 10 minutes, but it was still another 10 or so minutes after that that we actually received our menus (and only after, once again, I specifically asked for them).

Now, the menus are cute, they’re mounted on tall, vertical wooden boards. Good if someone needs to be disciplined. But this is a family blog. The brunch choices were limited: Eggs Benedict (hi Pat!), breakfast nachos (more on those later), a BLT, a breakfast pizza (see Sylvia’s review), a breakfast burger, pancakes, french toast, steel cut oats (which sounds like it should be the name of a romance novel), and cruellers. Some members of our group decided right off the bat that they were going to get breakfast nachos for the table. I wasn’t so on board with this idea, since my stomach was still a little mad at me for the tater tot experience I had put it through at Trailer Park on Friday evening. I said that I thought we should also get a small order of cruellers for the table; for $2 you get 6 cruellers. Everyone thought that was a good idea. And then right at that very moment one of the servers brought a plate of free cruellers to our table. So here’s my question: why are the cruellers on the menu if they’re given to each table for free? Whatever. The cruellers were basically donut balls, with a delicate crumb coating on the outside and soft cakey cruellery goodness on the inside.

I was on the fence about getting a BLT or the pancakes, but when Claire said she was getting pancakes and I could try a bit, that sealed my decision. BLT it was. Only I don’t care for tomatoes. I was almost certain that I ordered my BLT sans “T”, but when it (eventually) came to the table, there were the tomatoes, plain as day. Not a problem. What was a problem was the pace of service. (Two weeks in a row!)

Now, I suspect that the other people in the Tavern this morning were regulars, because no one else seemed at all distressed or agitated by the long wait to get their food. Or maybe it was also just because everyone could see exactly which meals were being cooked and when.

You see, here’s another baffling aspect about The Tavern. There’s a full kitchen in the back. However, in the main dining area there is also one man standing behind an L-shaped table setup, on top of which are a couple of pots over Bunsen burners and a pancake griddle. And this one man is responsible for cooking all of the brunch orders for all of the tables. It’s hard to complain about the pace of cooking when you can actually see the food being cooked. And don’t get me wrong, this one man was working at a very steady pace. No break for him, it was one order of pancakes and Eggs Benedict and breakfast nachos after another and he was churning them out admirably. But here’s another question: why? Why have one man (one!) cooking all of the meals for a full restaurant? What’s going on in the main kitchen if there’s just this one guy cooking over a couple of hot pots? Were we camping? No, we were not. Were we in college? No, we were not. Were we at a hotel’s breakfast buffet? No, we were not. We were at a restaurant, with a full kitchen, and the cooking arrangement this morning had me baffled. (Incidentally, the man cooking was right behind our table, so I spent the whole meal hoping he wouldn’t somehow lose his grip and send some scorching hot pancake batter flying in our direction.)

So, at about noon, our meals arrived. Jeffrey’s burger came out last even though it was just sitting on the cooking table. He wanted me to just reach back and get his plate, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that. My BLT came served on toasted multigrain bread with arugula, tomatoes (really, I could have sworn I specified no tomatoes), avocado, bacon, and some sort of special mayo. It also came with a side of house-made potato chips served in a small brown bag. The BLT was flavorful, the bacon was nicely crispy, and the mayo added a nice flavor, as did the avocado. The chips were pleasant, not too salty.

The price was pretty reasonable as well, with the bill for the 5 of us (including coffees and that nacho platter that we shared) coming to about $58. But there are so many questions about the cooking arrangement. I mean, look, it wasn’t as upsetting as at Chutney Masala last week. We could see the food being cooked. And it was a Sunday morning, none of us were in a hurry and we were all in good moods. We had a pleasant range of conversation to keep us occupied. If you don’t mind a leasuirely meal and you don’t want to go to the Croton Diner, if you’re looking for a cozy, local atmosphere then The Tavern would be fine.

Oh, and in conclusion, whoever decided to turn on the juke box (yup, there’s a large juke box in Tavern) to play a Black Eyed Peas medly at full volume at 11:30 on a Sunday morning in a small restaurant, well, that person should be disciplined with the brunch menu.

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Jeffrey

We’re back to breakfasting and we’re going to The Tavern, a place up in Croton! It’s a bar. There’s really no way around it. It’s a bar. There’s very low lighting inside, although it was bright and sunny outside. There was a table set up in the main dining area for the chef to cook up all the orders.

I ordered the Good Morning Burger, which is just a burger with caramelized onions and an over easy egg. It had a side of homemade potato chips. The burger was good for a burger. For a breakfast item, it could have been better. I would have made the patty a little thinner, taken out the onions, and added a tomato and maybe some avocado. It would make it a little more breakfast-y. The potato chips were not a very good idea either. They were over-fried and soggy from the oil. I also felt that they were really salty.

Another thing I was upset about was that the menu said they have all breakfast items available, “just ask!” Yet, when asked, they had no home fries. No home fries?! That’s one of the most important breakfast items ever! Just inconceivable!

Overall, this place seemed like they were trying really hard to do the whole brunch thing. I can understand the appeal. Take the hours that your establishment is usually closed and try and make a buck, but if you’re going to do it, do it right. Add some lighting so that people don’t burn their eyes when they step outside. Make all the brunch items better designed. Get some potatoes! The guy cooking all the food in front of everyone is nice, but it makes service really slow. Move him back in the kitchen with other cooks to speed it up and replace that space with another table! Others may have liked this place, but I probably won’t go back.

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Sylvia

The Yea: In The Tavern, a cozy little bar, the brunch menu is short but full of more original choices (although, they do say regular breakfast items are also available if you ask). The coffee is from the Black Cow Coffee shop, which is also located in Croton.

The Nay: One chef cooking in a temporary kitchen set up (I guess they were going for the open kitchen feel for brunch) complete with butane burners means slow slow service. Think one person cooking for 20 hungry people all at once, but everybody has a different order. It takes time. Given the smallness of the space, tables were basically almost on top of each other.

The Food: To start, they provided us with some hot (really, warm at best) cruellers, which were just really big donut holes lightly dusted with cinnamon sugar. Those were a nice way to start our wait for our meals. I ordered a single serving of breakfast nachos for the table (it also comes in a bigger size for a group). It was plenty for five people to share. It was tortilla chips covered with scrambled eggs, tomatoes, peppers, cheese, avocado, and I think some other stuff I cannot remember. The combination was really good, and not too heavy as regular nachos are.

For my meal I had a Good Morning Pizza. It came with three toppings of my choice. Since there was no list to choose from, I just blurted out three things I was in the mood for: Spinach, mushrooms, and peppers. It was essentially a three egg omelette with spinach, mushrooms, and peppers cooked on a thin pizza crust. It worked. It was really filling, but not heavy and a fun way to eat an omelette.

The czar says: A nice alternative to the diner. Interesting choices, but you have to have a good sense of what you want. If you go, make sure you have a good 2 hour window open, since service is a bit on the slow side. Plus, any party over 6 might be a problem since it’s a small dining room with a very limited amount of space and tables to push together. It is very kid friendly. Parking is on the street, and there is plenty of it.

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