Farm to Table Continued

Today we visit one of our three culinary finds from our Lafayette visit of last year—Brick and Spoon. (The other two were Steve and Pat’s Bon Temps Grill and Buck and Johnny’s in Breaux Bridge.) As with The Saint Street Inn, the owners, Ryan Trahan and Bryan Jewell are proud of their local food sourcing and there is a sign on one wall listing their many suppliers.

Brick and Spoon offers “a menu chock full of both unique and classic breakfast and lunch dishes… The restaurant…boasts ‘a morning ritual that’s anything but routine,’ according to the owners…. The owners…designed the menu, and they wanted it to be ‘as creative as possible,’ says Trahan. ‘We want people to like what we do. We don’t want to be something that you can find anywhere. We want it to be unique to us. We’re trying to bring the old Louisiana style feel of everything combined with the new, modern look of the breakfast scene. Something a little more lively than your normal breakfast, brunch and lunch,’ says Trahan. ‘We want it to be a place where you can come with your colleagues or your friends and also come with your family, have a few drinks and enjoy a nice brunch. We want people to feel comfortable but also be inspired by what we do’” (Elizabeth Rose at theind.com).

Since our last visit, Ryan and Bryan have expanded their “empire” to include restaurants in Orange Beach, FL, Destin, FL, Pensacola, and Houston with a New Orleans outlet scheduled to open on Magazine Street sometime this summer. And a quick Google search shows that these new restaurants appear to have found favor with the diners in those cities. In fact, the only real criticisms I have heard about the Lafayette restaurant in that on busy Saturday evenings the kitchen seems to be both slow and disorganized. But we have always gone mid-day mid-week and have never had a problem on any of our three visits.

While numerous reviewers praised the Killer Creole Omelet with Gulf shrimp, tasso ham, red and green bell peppers, and cheddar Jack cheese topped with hollandaise, I find their selection of Eggs Benedict variations impossible to ignore. Among the choices are: the Chicken Florentine with grilled chicken, garlic cream spinach, Parmesan cheese, poached eggs, and house-made hollandaise; the Crab Cake Benny with lump blue crab cakes, bacon, braised collard greens, poached eggs, and Creole hollandaise; the Oyster Bed with cornmeal dusted oysters, pecan smoked bacon, tomato, poached eggs, and rosemary hollandaise; and the Soft Shell Crab with two cornmeal dusted soft shell crabs, Canadian bacon, poached eggs, and Creole Hollandaise. What I didn’t see on the menu was the Korean BBQ Benedict that I so enjoyed last year.

After much internal debate—should it be the Crab Cake Benny or the Oyster Bed or the Soft Shell Crab, I finally decided on the latter.

And a wise choice this was. While the soft shells were nowhere as large as those served to Chuck the other day at Crawfish Town U.S.A., they were still perfectly cooked and displayed no sign that the crab had started to regrow its shell. And I wasn’t entirely sure how the smoky Canadian bacon would match with the more subtle crab but it worked just fine. The Creole hollandaise was mildly spicy from the Creole seasoning. But I do have one quibble.

Last year I declared that Brick and Spoon had poached the perfect egg with a firm white and a beautifully runny yolk. This year the yolk has been cooked just beyond the runny stage, and I am left wondering how it would have paired with the crab and Creole hollandaise.

Chuck was set to order the breakfast tacos with eggs and chorizo in crispy wonton skins. But I reminded him that this had been my first breakfast at Brick and Spoon, and while it was good, it didn’t knock my socks off and wasn’t something that I would probably order again. So he returned to his choice at his first breakfast here—the Roasted Corn, Crab, and Sweet Pepper Crêpes.

This dish was as delicious as it was beautiful. First, the crêpes were ethereally thin—just substantial enough to hold the filling of lump crab, roasted corn, and sautéed sweet peppers. I know that I have said this numerous times in the past but there is a special affinity between sweet crab and sweet corn. The two were meant to be eaten together. And when the corn is roasted the combination is taken to another level. The stuffed crêpes sat in a pool of cheese sauce that had just the right degree of richness without being overpowering.

His plate came with toast points while mine came with the Pomme Frites. And, big spender that I am, I upgraded to the parmesan and truffle coating for an additional $1.50. Brick and Spoon doesn’t offer the traditional breakfast potatoes of hash browns or home fries—it’s pomme frites with the breakfast offerings and the lunch sandwiches. But since these are the thin shoestring “frites,” that’s find with me.

Brick and Spoon has a breakfast menu that has me anticipating our next return. The owners have certainly succeeded in offering “something a little more lively than your normal breakfast, brunch and lunch” and earn 4.5 Addies for their efforts.

To review the role of Adler and the Addie rating system, read the November 14, 2011 blog.