Westchester Breakfast Club

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http://www.popovercafe.com/

Attendees: :jump_to_Reid:, :jump_to_Shelley:, :jump_to_Sylvia:, :jump_to_Andrew:, :jump_to_Jeff:

:a_Reid:

The Case: Popover Café v. The Westchester Breakfast Club

The Venue: My apartment, transferred from the Café on 86th and Columbus

The Facts: Getting the food was something of a challenge.  The woman taking my order did not seem to understand what I was ordering, which was very odd, since I was reading directly off of the menu. I had to resort to the ridiculous “raise my voice and start speaking more slowly” method that is usually reserved for talking to people who don’t speak English, which was clearly not the issue here.  In any event, the food was ready and well-packed when I arrived at the Café, though they failed to include Shelley’s “Mel’s Health French Toast,” which I then had to wait 5-10 minutes for.

Eventually though, I grabbed the small bag (with Shelley’s French toast) and single large bag (with everything else) and headed to my apartment where Andrew was waiting. (To clarify, he was around the block near my building, not actually waiting in my apartment. That would have been creepy.) The others arrived soon after and we set to dividing up the spoils of my adventure.

I had the citrus pancakes, though I stayed away from the companion “lemon syrup,” as, by the time I got it out of the bag, it had undergone significant stratification, leaving a thin, lightish-pee colored layer on top, and  a thick, cloudy, burnt orange layer beneath.  Neither layer was appetizing. That said, the pancakes were relatively fluffy despite the elapsed time, and had a tart, lemony finish going down. I’d recommend them, especially to someone eating at Popover, who could enjoy the syrup before it de-emulsified.

The star of the meal, however, were the eponymous popovers. Crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside, light and airy all the way through.

The Verdict: The popovers aren’t really necessary for the meal, but their awesomeness was more than sufficient.

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:a_Shelley:

Well, this weekend we decided to pop over to the Upper West Side to visit Reid’s new apartment. I’m not gonna lie, his place is in my dream neighborhood. That said, I left Reid with clear instructions to scope out and befriend any young single male professionals looking to get acquainted with a lovely young lady such as myself.

Right, this is a breakfast blog not a singles ad. Moving on.

Reid would be popping over to the Popover Café to get takeout brunch for all of us. On our way down we sent him our order and by the time we arrived, voila, brunch was there all ready to be eaten.
I chose MEL’S HEALTH WATCH BAKED ORANGE-VANILLA CHALLAH FRENCH TOAST. (Side note: Popover Café is the winner of the WBC’s first ever “Longest Meal Name” award. Congrats, Popover. If we start making some profit off this blog, we’ll print up a nifty certificate and send it to you so it can be displayed in your front window.) What made the French toast healthy? Well, apparently it was made with skim milk and egg whites. Which was good, because this allowed me to indulge in my new favorite thing: strawberry butter. Creamy butter + strawberries=deliciousness to be put on a popover.

Now, unfortunately I didn’t taste any vanilla nor did I detect any orange flavor in the French toast. It was kind of just average challah French toast. A little disappointing. And the toast was burned in a couple of spots. But the strawberry-orange compote was a saving grace. This was not a mashed up compote as I was expecting. Oh no, this was much better. It had actual chunks of strawberry, actual orange slices, making it a substantial and delicious accompaniment to the otherwise ordinary French toast. The French toast had gotten a bit soggy and had cooled by the time I ate it. It’s the kind of meal that I think would be better served at the café rather than gotten as take-out.

Now, the popovers. I was expecting the popovers to be small little things, which is why we asked Reid to get a whole extra basket of popovers. Little did we know that each popover is actually about the size of a grapefruit. I picked at several and may have wound up eating the equivalent of a whole popover by the time I was done. But I couldn’t help it, the popovers were a great accompaniment to the deliciousness known as strawberry butter.     If I could have just eaten that stuff with a spoon, I would have. (Note: I may or may not have had some straight spoonfuls of strawberry butter when I got home later that day.)

Overall my meal from Popover Café was just OK. Like I said, I wish the vanilla and orange flavors so prominently advertised in the lengthy name of the meal had actually been present in the French toast. The price was right, though, with the French toast ringing in at $10. I’d try Popover Café again to sample a different meal (or if only to get some more tubs of strawberry butter), but on a subsequent visit I’d dine in rather than take out.

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:a_Sylvia:

Congrats to Reid and his new digs!  As per tradition, the WBC paid him visit and breakfast was involved.  After a very lovely tour of the new place and its purple walls, it was back to business!

Breakfast was from the Popover Café.  It was actually take away from the Popover that was ordered ahead of time and picked up by our wonderful host, Reid.  This is why online menus were invented.

Take away is great when you want to eat in the comfort of your own home, and possibly dodge the wait.  Take away is not so great if you want a hot meal.  However, it is a great test to see if the meal stands the test of time.

I had a Flopover and a Popover.  On the menu, a Flopover is described as a “hearty crepe.”  I found it to be more like an omelette in form, but the egg tasted like a thick crepe.  This flopover was filled with sautéed apples and pears and currants, topped with some cinnamon sugar and sour cream.  In the whole mess of containers, I think my sour cream got misplaced.  However, the flopover wasn’t exactly as I had imagined, but it was good overall.  Would I order it again?  I might try another version of it next time, and perhaps at the café.  It held up well over time.  The apples and pears retained their shape and firmness and didn’t get all soggy and watery.  They were also perfectly spiced and not overly gooey and sweet like a pie filling.  The eggy part of it was pretty good, but probably better when served hot.

The popover was huge and delicious.  Each had a crispy outside and moist airy inside.  The strawberry butter it was served with was so light and delicious, I ate much more than I usually do.  I also now have a couple of extra containers of the stuff in my fridge!

The czar says:  Popover Café, I will be back, but mostly for your popovers.

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:a_Andrew:

While the idea of the popover sounds intriguing and delicious, alas, I couldn’t partake. For the last month I have been on a diet called “Paleo” which eschews all grain and starch. Although the effects of the diet have been nothing but amazingly positive, the actual diet itself has been problematic. Breakfast is a great time to sample the amazing progress made in foods since the miracle of the agricultural revolution: pancakes, bread, waffles, muffins and in this case, popovers. As delicious as the popovers may have been, I could not surmount the tremendous guilt I knew I would feel if I ate that grain. With that said, I did sample a  “Santa Fe” omelette and a link of chicken apple sausage.

Popover Café’s breakfast is a bit weak. They try to put cheese on everything, and you can’t even get a “vegetable” omelette. They have tons of items that have all different kinds of vegetables, and they can’t just take some vegetables, throw them in a omelette (sans cheese) and serve it up? Weak sauce. The “Santa Fe” omelette was too soggy (tomato does not go well inside an omelette, nor does fresh pepper).  The chicken apple sausage was decent.

Popover Café’s only redeeming quality may be its popovers, the omelettes surely are not

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:a_Jeff:

Well, the WBC had some popovers and other things from Popover Café in the city.  The food was good.  But really, if you really cared about a review about the food, then you’d probably be reading someone else’s review on this website.  If you’re reading my review, you’re really reading it because I’m such a good writer (Editor’s Note: Ha!) and you know I’m going to write about the experience.  That said, this breakfast turned into an all-day WBC outing. It is this outing that I am going to review.

First, the actual Westchester residents of the WBC piled into my new set of wheels. Check ’em out.

We headed down to Reid’s new place in the city for our traditional inaugural WBC breakfast.  It’s actually a really nice shindig.  Kudos, Reid.  We ate some food, and then decided that we should all take a trip out to Brooklyn.  Waiting for us there was the Brooklyn Flea.  It’s actually a pretty cool place.  You can buy a whole lot of junk and there’s really good food.  Had we not had such a heavy breakfast, we probably would have eaten there.  It’s something I plan on going out of my way for later in the year when the Brooklyn Flea moves to its outdoor location.  Either way, the ladies bought some stuff and Reid perused a dirty magazine (it’s ok, it was “vintage”).  After that, we piled back into the car, Shelley passed around the hand sanitizer, and on the way back to Manhattan we listened to some nice tunes from the Lonely Island album.  The traffic was pretty bad, so by the time we got back to Reid’s neighborhood, we decided to have dinner in the city.  After following Shelley to hell and back (Editor’s Note: It was just to Lincoln Center), we decided on a dinner of which I forget the location (Editor’s Note: It was Lansky’s).  The food was mediocre at best.  The chicken pot pie I ordered was more like chicken pot soup.  I’d avoid it.  Then, Reid took us to this small little bakery that you wouldn’t notice existed except there’s a line out the door.  When we first walked by it earlier that day, the line was rather long.  When we got there after dinner, the line had vanished, and unfortunately so did most of the choices.  What was left were three types of cookies, two of which my sister and I bought to try back at home.  They were amazing.  When I say they were amazing, I mean, someone could have been punching me in the face while I was eating these cookies and I would have been okay with it amazing.  I actually stopped by this bakery mid-day two days later and I bought a slice of pumpkin spice loaf.  That was also a punch in the face still amazing deal.  This line is well worth the wait.

Well,  that’s the end of the review.

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