Breakfast
Joe’s Brunch
Joe’s has a bit of a special place in my heart stomach. Joe’s was actually one of the first meals I ever blogged, back when I had a purely personal blog (now defunct). Joe’s was one of the first higher end spots I ate at after moving to LA and since then I have had some of my favorite meals at Joe’s. I had only had dinner there and after hearing so much about their other meals, I was ecstatic to make it there for brunch.
Like many of my meals at Joe’s, this was to celebrate a special occasion — my wife’s birthday with friends. There were seven of us and we scored a prime round table in the corner, excellent for conversation as well as to observe what everyone is eating! Our reservation was for 11:00, which we found out when we got there, is also what time Joe’s opens on Sundays. I was a bit surprised that they didn’t open an hour earlier, but for a lazy brunch, I suppose 11:00 is a decent time. I would note that the dining room filled fast, I highly suggest reservations.
The brunch menu focuses mainly on breakfasty items, with a couple of lunch options as well. Oops, almost forgot the drinks. I ordered a delicious cappuccino, however I was tempted by a terrific looking drink list which included a milk punch, hibiscus (champagne + cranberry), the “Best Bloody Mary ever” and a couple other cocktails that I can’t remember. A Bloody Mary was ordered at our table, the verdict? It was pretty damn good.
Each brunch dish comes with the choice of granola, fresh fruit, salad, or soup! Joe’s is hands down my favorite place to eat soup, always made with farmer’s market ingredients, always smooth and silky and always dairy free. Even if it wasn’t The Year of the Soup, I would have ordered the soup of the day, which was parsnip.
The soup was predictably tasty. Parsnip makes a great ingredient with a very subtle first flavor followed by a bit of root vegetable punctuation.
My neighbor had the granola, served with a mini-jug of milk and fresh blueberries. Most of the rest of the table ordered the fresh fruit plate (no melon filler) and I had one partner in soup.
A short time after we finished our starters, the main event arrived. As the server told us when we ordered, you wont leave Joe’s Brunch hungry. The portions were sizable (and rich).
Going around the table were a couple breakfast burritos. The burrito is stuffed with green chili and turkey chorizo, then topped with guacamole, sour cream and ranchero sauce ($13).
A couple people ordered the two egg, three buttermilk pancake and three pieces of applewood smoked bacon ($12). As you can see, the pancakes are incredibly fluffy and the picture shows scrambled egg whites, which followed the fluffy theme. The bacon, while not fluffy, is also a hit.
This picture is from across the table, weaving through glasses and table settings to find The Finger’s Huevos Rancheros. The dish is served with chilies & caramelized onions, black beans, jack and cheddar cheese, topped with ranchero sauce ($11)
I mulled over a few different menu items before settling on two finalists. It was down to the two poached egg dishes, either the House Smoked Red Trout with Poached Eggs, Dill & Onion Toast, Dill Hollandaise & Trout Caviar or the Maine Peeky-Toe Crab Hash with Poached Egg, Red and Yellow Peppers, Potatoes, Mustard Rosemary Sauce. We had a table debate about just what is a Peeky-Toe Crab, the common theory being that it was the toe of a crab who only sticks its feet out of the rock, where after the hunter chops the toe and sells it to restaurants. We were wrong, and I ultimately chose the trout ($14) over the crab ($15).
I couldn’t have been happier with my choice. Served atop thick toasted brioche and topped with just the right amount of subtle hollandaise, it was my perfect breakfast. The trout was very lightly smoked, not overpowering, and it is a supreme luxury to eat an entire serving of trout with no bones! From the color, I’m assuming that it is golden trout, which I like to cook myself, but simply can’t stand trying to remove all of the sub-toothpick sized bones, and I always miss a few.
Being that it was a birthday, we did have a couple of desserts. The chocolate ginger cookies with caramel and hot fudge with a small (very small) scoop of ice cream. We also had a trio of home made sorbets: lemon, strawberry and cranberry (my favorite), each spooned into a slice of strawberry. No pictures, because we devoured it. Dessert were $5 each and were very small portions.
Compared with a normal breakfast spot, Joe’s is a complete steal. Ranging from $11-$16 you get an amazing choice of brunch dishes, along with the “first course”. There are weekly specials, in today’s case a shrimp scampi, and the ingredients are all first rate. Service is friendly and somewhat casual, our food was served at a good pace without us feeling rushed.
Joe’s Restaurant
1023 Abbot Kinney Boulevard
Venice, California 90291
310.399.5811
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
Discussion
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We got there right after noon on Sunday - now we know why they ran out of the trout that day, it was all your fault! :) My wife ended up with the smoked salmon instead which was also great, and really liked the parsnip soup. I really like the crab hash but did a changeup and had the huevos rancheros this time. The cocktails are also really good - my milk punch definitely delivered a wallop of bourbon! My wife always gets the hibiscus. Reservations are available via Opentable.
Ha, too funny. Our table did snatch two of the trout and we weren’t about to give them back!
Next time, I think I will try the crab hash. Our waiter did say that it’s a pretty heavy dish.
I also noticed that the bar was packed too. Some people come just for the drinks!