Ladies who Brunch at The Homer St. Cafe and Bar

Early in the new year, a dear friend just rang in an early January birthday and after the chaos of the holiday season, decided to keep things low key and celebrate with a ladies brunch at Homer St. Café. I believe she chose this venue because she had heard great things (as had I) and they took reservations. I have to say that I kinda done with brunches that require a wait of over 30 minutes to be seated. Must be getting old…

The Homer St Café and Bar is absolutely charming. This location is connected to a heritage building and its embraced the old school feeling to create what feels like an upscale 1930’s French bistro with hints of farmhouse chic. The space is beautiful and classy without feeling pretentious. This is big space with high ceilings, three separate sections for dining and two bars.

Service is excellent. Love their aprons and wardrobe but more importantly everyone was personable, attentive, and knowledgeable.

Now for the food! Their brunch menu is pretty small (9 items) but all of the items sound interesting. One thing to note…this is definitely an upscale brunch and the portion sizes are quite “dainty” so you won’t leave stuffed full (but if you have a big appetite, you might still be hungry) and many items don’t come with roasted potatoes or toast…you’d need to order them as sides.

Jill ordered the Omelet with Gruyere Cheese and kale ($12). This comes with a side of toast and she added a side of bacon. She really enjoyed the flavours and gave a shout out to the tasty crispy bacon and good bread.

Ashley, the birthday girl, ordered their Blackstone Eggs Benedict with roasted tomato, hollandaise ($14). This looked beautiful… but tiny! For $14 I would expect to see a little more on my plate (a side of potatoes perhaps or small side salad) but she loved it and felt it was the perfect portion for her.  All of the elements looked wonderful and clearly they put a lot of love into this dish: perfectly poached and oozing eggs, crisp bacon, and instead of a standard English muffin, they bake their own crumpet-looking biscuits.

Tacia and I both went for the Rotisserie Plate, pork sausage and pork belly, 2 eggs, potatoes, choice of rye and sourdough ($14). We both weren’t feeling into the pork belly that morning so we both subbed pork belly for bacon. Eggs were lovely- nicely poached with a gorgeous runny orange yolk. Bacon was nice and smoky and crisp. Sausage was a bit dry and unremarkable. Potatoes were nice, fully roasted with skin on, served in a mini cast iron. I loved the rye toast….I can’t remember the last time that toast was a stand out element to my brunch.

I would say that even though my food was just “okay”(and for me, its usually all about the food) overall, I loved the atmosphere, service, décor and great chatter with my girlfriends and I left with a nice impression of the Homer St. Café and Bar.