Trina's Starlite Lounge, Somerville, MA

Yesterday we woke up to the typical bareness that accompanies a winter holiday. The streets were deserted and the temperature of 15°F did not help it. We were considering a full day of movie-watching and procrastination when Diego remembered Trina's Starlite Lounge's Industry Brunch.

A couple of years ago the folks at the Starlite Lounge came to a striking realization. All those cooks, chefs, maitres d', servers, busboys who work the Sunday shifts can never enjoy the blissfulness of a Sunday brunch. To right this wrong, they have been offering Monday Industry brunches ever since. To top it all, their fried chicken has been named one of the 10 best fried chickens outside the South by Bonn Appetit Magazine.

The Starlite Lounge is a few blocks from our place, so we gathered our strengths and marched over there thinking we would waltz in, have some quick Southern-style brunch and be on our way back in no time. After all, the streets looked as if everyone had decided to stay in! Boy we were wrong. A large fraction of the Inmanite population seemed to have congregated at the Starlite Lounge. Maybe with the holiday many "industry outsiders" had shared our thoughts, or maybe the industry does come together here on Mondays. In any case, we were welcomed by a huge crowd and a one and a half hours of waiting time.

After exactly 1.5 hours we were sat. We waited another 20 minutes for service and then another 20 until our food reached the table. The servers (two for about 15 tables) were nice and even apologetic for the slow service as they were clearly overwhelmed. I won't go as far as to say that the meal was worth the wait, but it was certainly delicious.

Diego went with the fried chicken on buttermilk waffle with hot pepper syrup. I'm not a big fan of fried chicken (after all, chicken is chicken) but Diego devoured the whole thing almost without breathing and I have to admit that the syrup was highly original. It had a spicy aftertaste without being overtly strong or hot. Because he had chosen an atypical brunch meal, he did without the coffee, and ordered a Bloody Mary instead. Trina's Starlite Lounge is foremost a cocktails bar and they do seem to know their craft. The BM was perfectly spicy, not terribly thick and came with a cucumber (pickeld?) spear to cool one's mouth after the spiciness. All in all a perfect cocktail for brunch.

After Diego's decadence, I felt compelled to take a more minimalist approach. All the options looked delicious (a Cobb salad, a traditional two eggs-bacon-toast-hash breakfast, scrambled eggs, biscuits and gravy, a country benny -bagels instead of English muffin and over easy eggs instead of poached, and huevos rancheros) but as I have done many times before, I went with two sides instead a full plate: a fruit cup and a portion of sweet corn bread. I am of the idea that corn bread is the U.S. most important contribution to the culinary world, and the Starlite Lounge one was probably the best I've ever tried. It was golden and crusty on the outside and soft, crumbly and with whole kernels on the inside. It came with a scoop of sweet butter and it was a thing of beauty: it looked more like a desert than a side.

Clearly, this was something of a controversial brunch: fried chicken and corn bread are certainly far from eggs, bacon or salmon, but we did have coffee, OJ+GJ, fruit and Bloody Mary. Most importantly, the Starlite Lounge gave us a Sunday on a Monday, and that was the brunch spirit we needed to end a sad winter weekend on a high note.

The Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro, Boston, MA

Last week Ana and I decided we wanted to breath some city air and went to the other side of the Charles to get some Beacon Hill chic. Ana had been insisting for months now that we should visit the little corner Bistro at the Beacon Hill Hotel and, as always, I decided to indulge her. The weather was marvelous, given that it was January in Boston after all, so we decided to walk over the bridge and catch some sun on the way there and back.

The Beacon Hill Hotel Bistro is very nicely decorated and set up with those nice Parisian-NewYorker white tiles that hypnotize people into walking into a restaurant. I don't think anyone can resist this effect. Being a cornel locale, the restaurant is drenched in light and makes the perfect setting for a relaxing brunch experience.

Their menu is pretty standard for a hotel restaurant and little bit unimaginative, I must say. Still you'll be able to find your fundamentals.

Ana decided to order the roasted peppers, onions, potatoes and cheddar cheese frittata.   Although quite filling, Ana did not seem particularly impressed. Ana is a big fan of side roasted potatoes, which were advertised to be served with the dish and were nowhere to be found. Of course, the frittata had more than its share of potatoes, but we'll get to them in a moment. Toast was also served with the dish and they were remarkably good. Also some kind of homemade cherry jam was offered that complemented the toast perfectly.

I decided to go with the poached eggs on smoked ham and toasted brioche with hollandaise herb sauce. Why not call them Eggs Benedict!!!??? You don't call Hot Dogs, processed pig parts, right? Anyways, once I got over this nomenclature issue, I was able to enjoy a pretty tasty dish. The eggs were perfectly poached and the brioche toast was amazing. They seem to know their toasts here. My dish was served with a side of roasted potatoes. And that's where problems begin.... They were artificial potatoes. You know the frozen one type made out of some paste and shaped like potatoes? Who in their right mind uses these????
Anyways, except of this unacceptable mistake, everything was great.

In the end, it was the location and set up, the real assets of the Beacon Hill Hotel & Bistro. After all, isn't it a luxury to relax and have a decent meal in a beautiful winter in Beacon Hill while on the Quest for the Perfect Brunch?