brunch at sweets and savories

i had my first meal yesterday at sweets and savories with some new and old LTH friends. on the whole, i was very happy with the food. brunch is a reasonable deal at $16/person and includes a cocktail (in my case a bellini), breakfast pastries, a first course of soup or salad, an entree and coffee or tea. desserts are extra. i think the biggest flaw in the meal was the pastry plate. palmiers, banana nut muffins and supersweet, non-authentic scones which tasted like cookies were not, IMO, the best way to start a meal. a selection of savory, not sweet, breads or rolls would have been more appropriate.
i've been told that s&s uses a lot of truffle oil, and it held true for this meal. the very heady odor of truffle oil floated in with my baby arugula salad which was dressed only with the oil and lemon juice. it was a revelation. i've had limited experience with truffle oil and had always thought it a poor substitute for the real thing. but this salad was amazing and made my head swim with its perfume. truffle oil was also a key ingredient in my duck hash with poached egg and hollandaise sauce which followed. i was grateful to see the egg was cooked more thoroughly than usual. i hate runny eggs. the hash could have used more duck but was delicious nonetheless. the table shared an order of duck fat fries with a very sweet figgy ketchup. the presentation was great, served in a translucent paper sack, a la mcdonalds, but with lovely flecks of salt and pepper coating each one. the ketchup was intriguing, but the fries could have stood on their own.
a place with 'sweets' in its name pretty much demands that one try the desserts, so our party of 7 shared 2 from a very appealing list. the better dish was the meyer lemon curd tart. meyer lemons are distinctly sweeter with a thinner skin than regular lemons. here, the distinction wasnt that noticeable. i'd say this curd was a little lighter in texture and extremely delicious, though the bottom crust needed more browning to bring out its flavor (a very common american baking mistake). the sticky toffee bread pudding we also ordered looked like 2 slices of french toast laid one on the other with a little caramel sauce drizzled over and around. this should not be a dessert for the faint of heart. it should be about excess-calories and sweetness and gooeyness and this one wasnt quite up to par. the bitter edge to the caramel was there, but it needed more caramel to reach the appropriate level of decadence. (i'm also used to dates in sticky toffee dishes-that would have helped this by adding a literal stickiness to it). the meal ended for me with an intriguingly perfumed cup of tea. i prefer straight-up black tea, but this wasnt bad. i was so busy talking too much that i forgot to find out what kind of tea it was. all in all, a nice room, unobtrusive but friendly service, and great company made me one very full, yet very content customer.

SWEETS AND SAVORIES is at 1534 w. fullerton. our meal came to $27per person with tax and tip.

There's not a lot for me to to add to Joan's nice analysis; here are some extra details:

Finding close on-street parking wasn't a problem. The reastaurant was full when we arrived, with some large brunch parties. Our group of seven were seated at two 4-tops placed together toward the back of the room. Service throughout was pleasant and fairly attentive, even with a full house.

Like Joan, I thought the scones were much sweeter and denser than I expected them to be, but I just treated them as a variation on the standard recipe and actually enjoyed them more than the banana-walnut muffins and palmiers--though I liked those, too.

My curried potato soup, which I had in parallel to Joan's salad, was pleasant but somewhat too mild; I felt it could have used a bit more spice to punch up its flavor. My taste of the baby arugula salad, redolent with white truffle oil and lemon dressing, was memorable.

The beef in my steak & eggs was done exactly medium-rare as ordered, and flavorful, though another's steak was pronounced not rare enough. I would have willingly traded some of the pastries for slices of their raisin & fennel bread to accompany the soup and the entree, but our waiter told me their bread supply was not in yet (this was shortly after noon). So, I found myself nibbling on pieces of those pastries throughout the meal...perhaps I would've done that even if there were bread available.

On the whole, a fine brunch in pleasant surroundings with finer friends to share it. I'm intrigued by our waiter's mention that they'll be doing truffle dinners, now that it's truffle season. I imagine that Sweets and Savories could be quite the place for such an experience.

--Matt

Sweets & Savories
1534 W. Fullerton
Chicago
773.281.6778

I agree - the brunch deal at Sweets and Savories is fabulous (can there be anything better than the breakfast risotto?)

However my one beef with Sweets and Savories is the service. It's always really iffy - the brunch service is really awful (dinner service in the evening can be great, but somtimes it's still off). Every time I've been there for brunch, the waitstaff seems really clueless. I've ordered things that they've forgot to bring and yet they've tried to charge me for. I've had bloody marys served to my table of 5 in different size glasses - one tall, 2 in rocks glasses, and another in what could generously be described as a juice glass - served all at the same time.

I've even had the wait staff try and turn me and my party of 4 away at 11am on a Sunday when the restaurant was not even a third full (and believe me - this was NOT due to previous reservations).

I'm not usually a huge bitch about service, but I do require that my wait staff at least be somewhat put together (at least serve the same drink in the same size the same table - and try to remember those fries). I really thought the weird stuff that's happened with brunch service was just a fluke, but after repeated visits it's really a downer. Enough to take a break from the yummy risotto...

mellonhead wrote:I've even had the wait staff try and turn me and my party of 4 away at 11am on a Sunday when the restaurant was not even a third full (and believe me - this was NOT due to previous reservations).

So, if they weren't booked-up with reservations for the remaining tables, what explanation did they give for trying to turn you away?

--Matt

justjoan wrote:truffle oil was also a key ingredient in my duck hash with poached egg and hollandaise sauce which followed.

Is this a regular menu item during brunch?

steve, i just checked the restaurant's website which has a sample brunch menu. it was similar to yesterday's, but i notice neither the arugula salad or the duck confit hash mentions the truffle oil. so... i don't know how to answer your question. i think you'd be better off asking the restaurant the day you might be planning to go (if that's your intention) joan

justjoan wrote:steve, i just checked the restaurant's website which has a sample brunch menu. it was similar to yesterday's, but i notice neither the arugula salad or the duck confit hash mentions the truffle oil. so... i don't know how to answer your question. i think you'd be better off asking the restaurant the day you might be planning to go (if that's your intention) joan

Thanks Joan (and Matt). My interest is more in the duck confit hash than necessarily the truffle oil, though I certainly wouldn't object if they happened to have it on hand when I visit.

mhl wrote:So, if they weren't booked-up with reservations for the remaining tables, what explanation did they give for trying to turn you away?

--Matt

Matt - You're going to love this: they had sat a few partys of 2 at 4-tops, so when we came in, there were no tables they could push together for my party (the remaining 2-tops were spread out in some slightly awkward locations). The two guys working the brunch managed to spread all 5 parties of 2 around the room, but they were all at 4-top tables (or 2-tops that were pushed together to be 4-tops). He was telling me that they were full for the day and he wasn't sure if he could seat me (god forbid you offer the customer a chair at the bar to wait, or push together some other tables, even if you have to move them more than 2 feet).

Slightly confused by the emptiness of the room, I asked him if there were any outstanding reservations, and he said that they had one - which only took up the tables on the back wall - and it wasn't for another hour and a half.

Instead of asking if I could wait, or (more logically) pushing some other tables together, he just told me he "couldn't fit us in today." My first reaction was 'WTF', but I told him I was willing to wait...he then told me that he thought it may be 45 minutes to an hour (mind you - by this time I've scanned the restaurant to figure that at least 2 of those tables were ready to turn over in 10 minutes or less as they looked like they were only waiting for their bills.)

They just didn't have their "stuff" together. I thought it may have been because he was new, but really - it was insane.

mellonhead wrote:Matt - You're going to love this: they had sat a few partys of 2 at 4-tops, so when we came in, there were no tables they could push together for my party (the remaining 2-tops were spread out in some slightly awkward locations). The two guys working the brunch managed to spread all 5 parties of 2 around the room, but they were all at 4-top tables (or 2-tops that were pushed together to be 4-tops). He was telling me that they were full for the day and he wasn't sure if he could seat me (god forbid you offer the customer a chair at the bar to wait, or push together some other tables, even if you have to move them more than 2 feet).

Slightly confused by the emptiness of the room, I asked him if there were any outstanding reservations, and he said that they had one - which only took up the tables on the back wall - and it wasn't for another hour and a half.

Instead of asking if I could wait, or (more logically) pushing some other tables together, he just told me he "couldn't fit us in today." My first reaction was 'WTF', but I told him I was willing to wait...he then told me that he thought it may be 45 minutes to an hour (mind you - by this time I've scanned the restaurant to figure that at least 2 of those tables were ready to turn over in 10 minutes or less as they looked like they were only waiting for their bills.)

They just didn't have their "stuff" together. I thought it may have been because he was new, but really - it was insane.

I agree, that was a rather bizarre-seeming situation. Your report gives the appearance of a less-than-best-effort on their part, unfortunately.

Their websitehas a mechanism to send them comments. If you want to give some "quality feedback," that might be a good means to do so. Back on Sept. 29th--in contrast to the experience you described--I had gotten an unanticipated extra-nice bit of hospitality from them when I accidentally showed up in the middle of a full-house wine event without a reservation. I later sent a note of appreciation via that comments form, and Chef David Richards e-mailed me back to acknowledge my note...so the comments are read.

--Matt