new restaurant Violet

anybody been to Violet on
Southport? what do you think

Violet
3819 N. Southport Ave
Chicago, IL
773-327-0234

I've been to Violet a few times now for breakfast/brunch. As I understand, they have been continuously amping up their hours and offering different menus and meals.
The things I've had here have been unfortunately underwhelming. I so want to like this place because the staff is pleasant and the interior is comfortable and gorgeous. However, the food underperforms in every way and it simply can't compete with nearby places like Southport Cafe or Julius Meinl.
I've tried the "deconstructed" oatmeal: basically plain blah oatmeal with mini bowls of add-ons that really don't work, like semi-melted chocolate morsels and chewy dried fruit. The bread pudding French toast looked laughably flimsy and thin; it tasted nothing like bread pudding and was a sad experience.
I've also had the "Southern" egg salad sandwich, which had nothing distinguishingly Southern about it, and was served in a small portion between incorrectly-toasted white bread. The only good thing I can rave about was the side salad, which had a wonderful and potent lemon vinaigrette.

Keeler wrote:anybody been to Violet on
Southport? what do you think

I've not been, have you? What do you think?

Had brunch there on Friday. As we were a bunch of bridesmaids (and the bride) celebrating the next day's wedding, it was nice to be able to BYO for mimosas - the copious amount we drank surely would have hiked up the bill substantially!

The interior is clean and stylish but still comfortable, not austere. The menu seems to swing towards southern/cajun flavors, but just slightly so. I too had the "southern" egg salad and found it to be pretty good, not a stand-out in its class (mine's better ), though runnier than I'm used to without any taste elements that would swing it to southern-style, like heavier spice, vinegar, etc. Many had the Ahi tuna sandwich with wasabi mayo and tabasco shallots (those were very tasty even by themselves!), and that did get rave reviews from all. They have a few creative takes on benedicts. One person got the New Orleans Benedict, which was an english muffin with blue crab (i think it was blue crab....but now my memory fails me), spinach, and cajun hollandaise. She declared it very good, but I noticed that the poached eggs' yolks had set (she did not order them hard poached, and I would have assumed they'd come out runny). We also had a bowl of the tomato bisque, which was grainier than most bisques and not cream-based; rather, it tasted much fresher, had a bit of kick to it, and was topped off with heavily infused basil oil, basil, and sourdough croutons. This was a hit. All in all, there were no complaints - though admittedly we were giddy on the celebration (and champagne) and food was almost an afterthought!

It was a nice, quite, reasonably priced place - with decent portions - that I wouldn't mind revisiting, especially if in the neighborhood.

before I even got to eat there, there is a notice on the door that it has closed for good. Another restaurant to bite the dust.