Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Ruby Slipper

Like I was saying last week, I am always on the lookout for another no frills weekend breakfast joint, and I think that I found another one in Mid-City. The Ruby Slipper has a great story behind it - one better told by its neighbor Ian McNulty than me. While I enjoy reading about residents investing in their areas, I don't have the same personal connection to the place as Ian does. Instead I'll just focus on the food, which was pretty good.
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First, it must be noted that the brunch served at The Slipper on the weekend is more akin to breakfast. There is a very, very limited lunch menu of a few salads and a visually enticing chicken salad sandwich. But other than that, you're pretty much stuck with breakfast.
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Which is not too bad considering your options include this bowl of shrimp and grits. Cooked in an Abita beer sauce, the shrimp were seasoned with a heavy hand of thyme, an ingredient which made frequent appearances on the menu. The grits were coarse ground and not as creamy as is my personal preference.

The Folk Singer had the benedict-like Eggs Blackstone - biscuits layered with broiled tomatoes, bacon, and poached eggs enrobed in a thick hollandaise. Each component of this dish was well executed: the biscuits are made in house, the bacon was cooked crispy so that it easily crumbled without chewiness, and the hollandaise was thick and rich. All of these touches contributed to a very fine breakfast.

The kitchen staff makes a mean pancake too. The special on our visit was a white chocolate and spicy pecan version, which made for an interesting sweet and savory combination, but it was the perfect texture of the flapjack which kept me fighting with TFS for my fair share.

The Ruby Slipper - Par, but make sure to pass on the $3 small glass of (albeit freshly squeezed) orange juice.

5 comments:

Frolic said...

I went not long after they opened ans was mighty unimpressed. Seemed like they put a lot of thought into the cute/funky decor and very little into the menu.

Perhaps it's gotten better.

Peter said...

I think it has. I would not put the Slipper in the category of "this is a brunch that I am willing to endure a 30 minute wait for," but it certainly does a great job when you don't feel like cooking on a weekend morning.

Much better than say Pontchartrain Point in West End, but not as good as eat.

christine said...

the pancakes at the Ruby Slipper are awful (in my opinion), chewy and dense. nothing special, worse than bisquick can do for you. but they give you a nice sized slice of thick ham with a basic breakfast as opposed to some other places.

Peter said...

Really? The pancake we had was thick and fluffy. Maybe we just got lucky with the batter that day.

Rene said...

Well Peter did give it a par, which on the Blackened Out rating system is like kissing your sister.