Brunch; a delicious meal with great friends, calm atmosphere, and a good excuse to drink booze in the morning (it has OJ in it, see? It's breakfast-y!). The Arbor at the Port of Rochester provided a stunning and elegant backdrop for this clash of confections, this barrage of bacon, this feud of the food, the Battle of the Brunches. The ballrooms with their white linen clad tables, crystal chandeliers casting and catching light, and gorgeous wooden floors were teeming with oodles of guests hopping from table to table in order to sample all of the competing restaurants' brunch time entries. Everyone received 3 voting chips with paid entry which were used to judge the competitors on three categories- best in show, best savory dish, and best sweet dish. There's a lot to cover here, so I'm just going to take it bite by bite.
My pick for best savory dish went to New York Kitchen for their delicious Scottish Style Chicken n' "Waffles." The chicken was crunchy, tender, and juicy, and the port wine and blackberry jelly on it made it savory with just a hint of that sweetness element. The waffle was actually a biscuit, hence the quotation marks, which made it more of a little slider sandwich. I wanted to go back for like 5 more, but we had a TON of other things to try.
The one that stood out as the best sweets dish was from the Culinary/Hospitality students of Monroe Community College with their Provencal waffle Sundae. This consisted of a crispy bite-sized rosemary waffle topped with a goat cheese ice cream, beet and lavender marmalade, lemon sauce and a crispy piece of bacon (also with a non-meat option).Holy moley there was a lot going on flavor-wise here, but it worked incredibly well together. I wasn't completely sold on the beet and lavender marmalade when the chef was telling us about the dish, but there was no beet taste at all. The presentation was also on point and the colors were gorgeous in it.
For me, the best in show was, hands down, Brown Hound Downtown (man I can't wait to have a full meal here), with their Country Bistro Benedict. This was a country ham, scrambled eggs and a spicy hollandaise sauce all a top a cheddar-scallion biscuit. I'm happy this sample was so big and not as bite size as the others. I could have eaten a whole meal of this and will hopefully get to do just that soon. The biscuit was perfect and that hollandaise sauce had the right amount of kick for me, enough to enhance the flavor without overpowering the dish. The country ham brought in the salt aspect and to be honest, I don't know where the eggs were. I think they were so smothered in the sauce that I didn't notice them. I'm not sure, I just know I was happy with it.
Tasteful Connections Catering had a decent maple glazed chicken on top of a doughnut that I liked, but what really shined on their table was the mango lemonade with the little coconut popping bobas in it. Woah, woah, woah was that a good drink. I wish my mimosa had been made with that stuff instead of orange juice. The bobas made it feel like it had vanilla or something in it, giving it a little bit of a creamy flavor that was familiar but I still can't quite pinpoint. OH. I think it reminded me of the vanilla bean lemonade from Napa Wood Fired Pizza. I did not get seconds of anything at this brunch bonanza as I was too full, but I did have room for a second cup of this mango lemonade.
Another honorable mention for me was Unter Biergarten's sauerkraut and sausage. Please, please correct me if it's called something else! I somehow didn't take a picture of what this dish included and can't remember if it was a specific kind of sausage or wurst, but I needed to include this dish because it turns out I like sauerkraut, who knew? Not me that's for sure! I actually usually hate the stuff, but this version was very mild and quite tasty, especially paired with the meat. The name of this restaurant might sound familiar from my Thursday Thoughts piece from 2 weeks ago about the Garbage Plates, apparently they can't get enough of giving out samples and I'm 100% here for it.
Holey moley I almost forgot about Lento's version of bacon and eggs! They weren't anything crazy, but they were delicious. Starting with a classic deviled egg, they then topped these beauties with a chunk of house made smoked maple cured pork belly. Yummy! Although the dish was simple, the flavors really shined, and I'm not the only one who thought so, as they took second place in the Best Savory category.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the official winners. Best savory sample went to Brown Hound Downtown (that yummy biscuit Benedict) and as mentioned above, second place went to Lento for their deviled eggs. First place in the Sweet Treat category went to Peajay's Workshop for their buttercup white chocolate bread pudding, I wish the buttercup had been a spread on top of that pudding though. Don't get me wrong, the whole thing was delicious, but that part was really the shining star of the dish for me. Second place in the same category went to Monroe Community College's restaurant, Food for Thought for their cannoli french toast, which I was personally disappointed by, but my goodness did it look pretty. There was a lot that went into that one too and it definitely took some time to construct and plate. I think I'm just not a big french toast gal (unless its stuffed with marshmallow fluff or made by my momma). Last category was best in show, with Brown Hound Downtown again taking first place again and Peajay's Workshop taking home another title albeit in second place this time.
A big thank you to the Junior League of Rochester for putting this event on and to all of the restaurants that participated! It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon and I think its a great way to explore new foods and learn about local places to check out later on.
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