Over Easy, and Overpriced
When Empanada Boy and I first moved to Ravenswood, I was excited to try Over Easy, a hip-looking breakfast joint just down the street. Unfortunately, a fire at the restaurant meant its closure just a few weeks before our arrival.
Now it’s open again, so we decided to try it with our friends Short Stack and Sir Cheesealot. It was just as hip and popular as I thought it would be, although the wait was only ten minutes or so. There are long mirrors along each wall with framed pictures at each end. The decor is egg-dominated; the bar is painted yellow, and strings of faux eggs hang in the window and along one wall.
As could be expected, the menu is also quite eggy. Sir Cheesealot and I ordered the Damen Avenue Omelet with portobellos, spinach and goat cheese from the Sunday brunch menu. These came with potatoes and toast. The omelets were something of a letdown because they didn’t contain enough mushroom or goat cheese and also because they were listed at a steep $10 apiece. These omelets were worth about $7-$8 tops, and I could make a better one for $3 or less. It crossed my mind that perhaps the fire insurance and rebuilding costs were trickling down to us.
The same $10 price tag overshadowed EB’s tiramisu French toast. This dish sounded a little too decadent for my taste, but delicious, nontheless. It was indeed tasty— made with two slices of thick Texas Toast and filled with almond-infused mascarpone. There was no liquor detectable, as in a normal tiramisu, but some diners probably can’t take their liquor for breakfast. Still, no matter how delicious the dish was, it was not worth $10. EB called it “underwhelming.”
Short Stack lived up to her newly endowed name and ordered “Emily’s Dream,” two pancakes filled with blackberries and topped with dots of whipped cream a ball of orange butter. The citrus in the butter made a nice complement for the sweeter berries. The pancakes were also tasty, and at a more reasonable price of $8, I might consider ordering them again.
That’s if I come back to Over Easy. It’s not that I didn’t like the restaurant. The food was fine, and the place has great decor and wonderful ambiance. But when I go out to breakfast, I want to be eating food I wouldn’t make or replicate at home. I didn’t find that to be true here. My omelets are just as good as those, and EB’s chorizo and eggs or his waffles could take Over Easy any day. Most importantly, we could get all the joy of a great breakfast without the $20 investment.
Over Easy
4943 N. Damen Ave.
Chicago, IL 60625
773.506.2605
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Empanada Boy said,
March 25, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
The dishes definitely sounded more unique on the menu than they turned out to be. ML’s omelet turned out to be a pretty standard omelet, Short Stack’s stack o’ pancakes was really a pretty normal set of pancakes with some berries and slightly better presentation than I could do at home. Even my tiramisu French toast ended up tasting not nearly as exotic as it sounds. One of my favorite breakfast spots in Madison is Lazy Jane’s on Williamson Street. It’s similar to Over Easy’s in that they both emphasize atmosphere, but Lazy Jane’s manages to make delicious and very distinctive breakfast/brunch dishes, ones that you probably can’t make at home and does it at your normal 20-something targeted brunch prices of around 7 or 8 bucks, perhaps even less for some dishes. I’m not opposed to paying Over Easy prices for brunch, but I think I would expect more than we got at Over Easy.
EB
Sous Chef said,
March 26, 2007 @ 8:01 am
I have a breakfast place to submit for your consideration, Lassie. We tried Dixie Kitchen in Evanston (another location in Hyde Park) for brunch this weekend. We had been many times for dinner, but this was our first visit for brunch. Among other things, they serve beignets and chicory coffee. Although the beignets were denser than I remember them being in New Orleans, they were delicious. I ordered eggs sardou which were poached eggs on top of a slice of fried green tomato over corn bread croutons. It was covered with a spinach hollandaise sauce and served with roasted potatoes and a side of cheese grits. The best, and most original, brunch dish I’ve had in a long time. Price tag, $8.50. Check it out!
Empanada Boy said,
April 22, 2007 @ 11:21 pm
That sounds great! I hope we try that for a M.L. post. Besides, we’re overdue for our first restaurant in the great CITY of Evanston. Slim McDinner insisted on about week 2 of this blog that Evanston be listed as a city and not a town on the right-side category links of the home page. I tried to convince her to list it as a town just to get his goat, but her journalistic instincts for accuracy will win out in the end I’m sure.
Daddy Salmon said,
May 28, 2007 @ 11:14 pm
Mango Lassie,
I’m sorry that the Iraqi restaurant did not meet with your approval. I clicked on all the
ads and especially enjoyed checking out the 29,000 filapina ladies.
Daddy Salmon
» A Brunch Worth Waiting For said,
July 29, 2007 @ 4:09 pm
[...] One final commendable thing about M.Henry is its prices. Faithful readers of this blog may recall my comments on Over Easy in which I cried out at the injustice of $10 omelets. The food we ate at M.Henry cost around $8 a plate, and it was far more innovative. Who says quality always has to come at a cost? [...]