Brunch at 2nd Street

My friend Tom and I had brunch at 2nd Street an American bistro on Sunday. Neither of us had been there since their big renovation, and we were looking forward to it. I'm happy to say that 2nd Street an American bistro did not disappoint! Can you tell the an American bistro part of their name cracks me up a little?

On to business. Care to guess what this is?


Only if you said "Obviously, that's the smoked gouda mac & cheese, panko breaded and fried golden brown with a fire roasted pepper coulis" would you be right. Oh wait, "That's a little piece of heaven on your plate" would be correct, too. Now I'm not a mac & cheese snob, but I am a few light years from being able to appreciate the stuff in blue box (though god knows I've eaten my share). This was really wonderful. The ratio of crunch outside to creamy inside was perfect. Note that though it's in the starter section, it's plenty big enough for a meal for one.

Even though we were pretty full and cooing with mac & cheese-induced delight, we plunged gamely on to our main courses. Here is Tom's torso getting ready to enjoy his french toast, a "flaky croissant dunked in a Frangelica-infused batter and served with apple wood bacon." With a little cup of straw- and blueberries. You can see what's left of his mango mint drink that really had no mint to speak of in it. His verdict: the french toast was a winner.




I had the Southern Chesapeake Benedict. The crab meat and gouda grit cake were delicious and worked well together, but I wasn't a fan of the flattened herbed scrambled egg or the greasy chive hollandaise. My second bloody mary here was much better than the first. Draw your own conclusions about that.



We didn't have dessert and I hope we're better people for it because the cakes in the display case looked pretty good.

The spaciousness of the new look is great. The place used to feel really cramped but now there's actually room to move between tables, even after you've eaten a big plate of fried mac & cheese. The decor is typical for this kind of restaurant (i.e., boring). One tiny complaint: Sunday was a dreary day in the 'burg and the restaurant was pretty dark anyway, so we asked to be seated near the windows to get whatever light we could. The hostess told us that section was closed off then promptly seated the next three tables out there. Ah well, we didn't need light to see those fried mac & cheese logs! We'll be back.