In case you didn’t get the very important memo, Boulevardier, the French bistro in Bishop Arts District, has now entered the brunch market. (Thank you, Mighty French Culinary Gods.) On Sunday, when I attended brunch as the Boulevardier’s guest, I tasted a few of its offerings available every Sunday.
Chef and owner Nathan Tate has created a pretty exciting early Sunday menu, and I’m not just saying that. I’m a huge fan of brunch, but the same old waffles and biscuits and gravy thing can be tiring very, very quickly. Tate’s selections, like the beef tongue hash, are nothing like the usual brunch selections. Nor do they barely fill you up. Large plates (such as the crisp duck leg confit with sunny side up duck eggs and ground grits cake) will have you stumbling out of Boulevardier, stuffed as ever, once you start digging in.
A new menu can be hard to navigate, especially if you’re antisocial and don’t like talking to waiters. No fear. Here’s how you should do brunch at Boulevardier.
Step 1. Start your brunch with coffee or a cocktail. A pretty nice waiter, maybe by the name of Doug, will come by and ask you for your drink order. The spiced pumpkin flip will get you in the holiday mood. It’s a sweet, subtle blend of Crusoe Spiced Rum, Cocchi Torino, pumpkin, egg, maple and nutmeg. Or you could also go for the Corpse Reviver #2, which sounds like a character name from a zombie videogame.
Step 2. Order the full English breakfast, steak frites and eggs, or duck leg confit if you’re really hungry. As I said before, the duck leg confit is dinner-worthy stuff. It comes with two sunny side up duck eggs. Once you bite into the duck eggs, they create this yolky sauce that softens up the Homestead stone ground grits cakes, bringing out the sweet corn flavors inside. Plus, that huckleberry sauce just makes you want to lick your plate like a dog.
Order the fresh fruit with creme fraiche, house-cured lox, or quiche if you’re not that hungry. The quiche (house bacon, spinach, caramelized onion, Gruyere, parmesan, and arugula-chicory salad) is a pretty light creation. The eggs are a little runny, which is exactly the way I like mine: soft and quivery. Another light option is the house-cured lox on top of Village Bakery baguettes with sweet pickled red onion, capers, and caviar. Salty lox and capers are balanced out by the sweet onion lying on top of a crunchy toasted baguette.
Other options include a banh mi sandwich with bacon and two sunny eggs, croque madame, french toast, eggs meurette, and an omelette.
Step 3. Pat your stomach happily. Leave a generous tip. Go home. Take a nap.
Brunch is served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday.
