Brick and Mortar is a relatively new restaurant located on 312 N. 12th Street . It was our meet up destination for a group dinner. According to the server, the establishment opened in June 2015. Brick and Mortar had a nice casual and modern feel to it. Below is what I ordered. Before you judge me on what I ordered, one I would like to say that there was a limited selection for vegetarians, two it's the company that counts, and three the two items were unique to the restaurant.
I got the Spring Salad. It came with watercress, dandelion chervil, green radish, hazelnut, ricotta salata, and lemon horseradish vinaigrette. The salad was very fresh. The dressing was on the sweeter side which I didn't mind, but I could not taste the horseradish. Overall, the salad was healthy, pleasant, light, and appetizing. I liked it.
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| Spring Salad |
In addition, I ordered the Fries Bravas which were fries with house seasoning and house sauce. In this case, the seasoning was berbere spice and ginger ketchup. In my opinion, the fries were over seasoned. I found it to salty and spicy for my palate; however, they were cooked to perfection. They were somewhat crispy on the outside and tender in the inside. The sauce was supposedly ginger ketchup, but I didn't detect any ginger. It just taste like plain marinara sauce to me.
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| Fries Bravas |
That night, we scored complimentary desserts! The server said that he noticed that it took longer for our food to come out and they had a new grill chef. I honestly didn't think the food took long to come out at all for a party of 6. I don't think we even waited 30 minutes for the food. I have waited longer for food when there was only two of us which I thought was ridiculous. Nonetheless, I am not going to decline free desserts. Below are the three desserts he bought us. I only remember the name of one of them. The dessert in the bottom of the picture is a Sticky Toffee Muffin. It was the bomb dot com. It was warm, moist, and had a nutty favor. It was topped with whip cream, but oh how I wish it came with vanilla ice cream. That would have completed my life. The other two desserts were subpar compared to the Sticky Toffee Muffin. The upper left hand corner is some kind of pound cake that appears to be made with corn meal and topped with blueberry compote and maybe lemon sorbet. I didn't enjoy it at all. The pound cake was very grainy and that's all I focused on while tasting it. The last dessert on the upper right hand corner was some kind of chocolate mousse with berries. It was good and tasted like chocolate pudding, but it was nothing phenomenal.
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| Desserts |
Overall, this was a nice place to have dinner with friends. This wouldn't be my first pick to go catch up with my friends since their vegetarian options are limited, but if one of friends wanted to go there for dinner, I would go.
On one lovely Sunday, I enjoyed a brunch with my friends at Cafe Lift (428 N. 13th Street) . We arrived at cafe around 10AM and was seat within 20 minutes for a party of 3. The interior of the place was interesting in that there were pipes along the ceiling and some on the side wall. The restaurant was smaller than I thought it would be. For some reason, I thought it would be more spacious with many seatings and possibly a second floor. These were just assumptions I made from the yelp pictures I saw. I guess since there were stairs leading up the establishment, it looked like that there might be a second floor to the restaurant. Also, the fairly high ceiling and pipes gave the illusion of being very spacious. Cafe Lift was a reasonable size restaurant with about 20 tables.
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| Breakfast Burrito |
Since I loved all the ingredients in the Breakfast Burrito (scrambled eggs, roasted peppers, mushrooms, sweet onions and chihuahua cheese, rolled in a flour tortilla, topped with ancho chilli sauce and served with homemade hot sauce and sour cream), I decided to get it. I do not regret my choice one bit. It was delicious. The burrito was huge and filled with fluffy well cooked scrambled eggs as well as tasty tender pepper, mushroom, and onion. There was also some cheese inside the burrito. I actually never had chihuahua cheese before. I thought it was okay. It was white cheese that tasted mildly like cheddar. On top of the burrito, there were hot sauce and a whole grilled jalapeno. Although the description said it was ancho chilli sauce, it tasted awfully similar to sriracha. On the side were homemade hot sauce, sour cream, and potatoes. I did not really eat the sour cream with the burrito. The homemade hot sauce was the bomb dot com aka phenomenal. It tasted hot and tangy. I loved it. I thought the hot sauce on the burrito and the homemade hot sauce really completed the dish for me. The side potatoes were well seasoned and good. I wished they gave me more potatoes than just a couple of pieces:( Overall I will give this whole plate 5 out of 5 stars.
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| Lemon Ricotta Pancake |
In addition to the burrito, I shared a Lemon Ricotta Pancake with my friends. Another decision I do not regret. The pancakes were dusted with powder sugar and came with honey, home made whip cream, and some kind of home made preserve (possibly strawberry, raspberry, or mixed berries) on the side. The pancakes were soft and somewhat fluffy with a hint of lemon ricotta flavor. I liked the pancake best with the homemade whipped cream topping. I would rate these pancakes 5 out of 5 stars, too.
My experience at the cafe was splendid . The wait for the table was not too long. After putting in our order, the food came out pretty quick considering that the restaurant was packed. The food was spectacular. Lastly, our server was very friendly and attentive.
