The Time: 12:45 pm May 9, 2010
The Meal: Brunch; I had Biscuits and Sausage Gravy with a bowl of fruit on the side, TJ had the "Berry Berry French toast bread pudding with fresh berries, berry sauce, berry cream cheese, whipped cream and toasted pecans." We both had coffee.
Overview: Take the Cake in Northside is one of my favorite places for brunch in the city. It's a small bakery specializing in what I'd call casually sophisticated pastries; they are delicious and pretty but not in that sort of frilly, fussy way that I hate. In fact, sometimes they look a bit messy. I think that's the way food should look sometimes. But I digress. In addition to being a bakery, Take the Cake has expanded its business to include a cafe that opens up for Brunch on the weekends and lunch during the week. I've not yet had the opportunity to grab lunch there as I work too far away but this is the second time I've had brunch at Take the Cake and it was once again outstanding.
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The Food: I had a simple breakfast dish that typically is either done really well or horrifically bad. Biscuits and Sausage Gravy has the propensity to be an overly heavy, greasy, fatty dish. The rendition of this classic that I had today, while not something that could be described as light, was certainly not greasy or overly heavy. The biscuits were crispy on the outside and light and fluffy on the inside (much like myself), the gravy was creamy and perfectly seasoned, and the sausage was exactly as sausage should be: a bit spicy, lean but not at all bland, and there was a TON of it. I swear, there had to be a quarter to a third of a pound of sausage in this gravy. I had to take half of it home, and trust me, I'm usually a clean plate kind of girl.
The gravy itself tasted almost like ultra creamy mashed potatoes. I wouldn't be surprised to find out they'd used potato starch to thicken it. It had just the right amounts of salt and pepper to highlight the spices in the sausage. The fruit I ordered was fresh and tasty, and it was just the right thing to balance out the spicy richness of the B&G; frankly, I think they should always serve it with fruit.
TJ's Berry Berry French Toast Bread Pudding was really just an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast. I'm not huge on super sweet stuff for breakfast and definitely couldn't eat such a thing for brunch myself, but the few bites I had were delicious. My understanding is they have a different variety of this french-toast-bread pudding number every weekend.
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Here's my take on what they might be doing to create this mountainous confection:
Basically, they take what I think is just a thick-cut brioche and soak it in a sweetened milk and egg mixture that might slightly resemble french toast batter; they could stand to add some cinnamon and/or nutmeg to it. Pretty sure it contains almond extract. They layer the soaked bread three or four slices thick and then bake it. This gives the outside a thin, pleasant crust while keeping the inside extremely moist. Then they top it with a different sauce and appropriate additions: in this case a sweet and tangy berry sauce, fresh strawberries/blackberries, toasted pecans, and a spiced whipped cream. It was extremely rich and there's just so much of it. For me, it was overly sweet for the first meal of the day, but as a dessert I probably wouldn't have minded it. A side of bacon might have balanced it out enough, but you'd need a lot of it to get through the entire pile of toast. The one thing I think could have really improved this was a citrus sauce along with the berry sauce. Would have brightened up all the flavors and made it a bit less dessert-y. All that said, it was definitely unique and still pretty damn good.
One complaint: the coffee was only OK. Certainly not coffee that could be taken black by coffee connoisseurs (not that I claim to be one). Tasted just fine with some half and half and sugar.
The Decor/Atmosphere: Well, I'm new to this. So I didn't think to take a picture of the interior of Take the Cake. Which is a sad story, cause it's really quite lovely. They have this great open space with a their prep area kind of right in the middle. The colors are nice cool tones with bright accents everywhere and the furniture is a mixture of reclaimed thrift-store/attic relics, playful ikea pieces, and art school industrial stuff. A look that could be called "eclectic" I suppose, but really just feels comfy to me. Promise I'll remember to photograph the next place I review.
The atmosphere is energetic, but not hyper. Any kind of person could and would feel comfortable here I think. There are no menus, just a large portion of wall painted with chalkboard paint with the day's food listed.
UPDATE: Checked the Take the Cake facebook page and they have shots of the interior! Woot.
The Service: Take the Cake uses a self-service method for coffee and the service in general is pretty casual. No hostess to seat you, seating is first come first serve. Today we were late enough to miss the crowd, but the one other time I've been there for brunch was a bitterly cold, snowy day and we practically had to throw some elbows to get a seat. I don't mind that, I think it adds to the experience, but I could see how some people might find that stressful in the morning. One of the owners (Doug) brought us our silverware and glasses of water and he was working the register when we placed our order (which you do at the counter once you've selected your seats). He is a very pleasant person, as were all of the servers that came around to check on us and bring us our food. Overall excellent service, but certainly not formal.
The Price: My biscuits and gravy were $6.95 and fed me both for brunch and later as part of my dinner (along side a summer salad, which I will share a recipe for in my next post); The french toast was somewhere around the same price and also had about half of it boxed up and taken home. Not sure on the coffee and fruit prices as TJ was gracious enough to treat me this morning, but I'm sure they were equally reasonable.
The Verdict: I love brunch. It might honestly be my favorite meal, which makes sense because it combines two meals and typically involves bacon. I've eaten a hell of a lot of brunches in my day. Take the Cake offers some of the most unique brunch dishes I've had in a comfortable, fun setting. And it's cheap! You can't get this stuff at a chain. If you like a good breakfast or brunch, or if you love pastries, you have to get yourself down to Northside to visit Take the Cake.
This concludes my first review! Yay. I hope you find it useful, and possibly even entertaining. More coming soon.
-R
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