Another Sunday hangover solved by a benedict.
This time I went to Next Door Brewing in Madison to try both the eggs benedict and their genius brunch flight of bloody marys. Both were delicious and helped ease my Sunday morning blues.
On a side note, this song sums up exactly how I felt.
Anyway, the bloody marys were great. But what about the Benny? In my journey to find the best ever, this is the first time I’ve strayed from the traditional eggs benedict. Next Door served up their Grilled Cheese Benedict, which consisted of an “English muffin, grilled Halloumi cheese, poached eggs, and hollandaise. Served with fried potato medley.”
Here’s how it holds up.
Hollandaise: 3/5
As much as the rest of the dish strayed from the traditional eggs benny, the hollandaise was pretty much in line with, well, a normal hollandaise. The only thing I noticed was it had somewhat of a sharp, horseradish[y flavor, with a mustard-like consistency.
Eggs: 4/5
Poached eggs are hard to get right, but Next Door had no trouble putting out some quality eggs. They were cooked to that perfect point where a small slice of the fork opens up an array of sunshiney yellow, like the sun bursting through a cloudy day.
Meat (in this case cheese): 4/5
Here’s where it got interesting. I’ve never had Halloumi cheese. But if I was eating this thing blindfolded, I would swear it was some sort of breakfast ham or sausage. It did have a weird, rubbery texture that I wasn’t ready for. As for flavor, the cheese itself had mix of a subtle creamy mozzarella and a tangy goat cheese taste. But that gets pushed to the wayside, as the cheese really absorbed the smokey flavors of the grill, giving it a nice meaty, char-grilled flavor. My only complaint was two thick slices of the cheese was a bit too rich for my poor, unsettled (read hungover) stomach. But that’s more my fault than theirs.
Muffin: 3/5
Not much to say about the muffin, but not much to complain about either. A solid, big, fluffy English muffin that did its job absorbing the egg drippings. The only thing I would fault would be it was a little under toasted. Too much fluff = not enough crunch.
Side: 4.5/5
This potato medley, made up of every kind of color of potato (I never knew there was a purple potato), was amazing. You can tell they were freshly diced and fried, and not some pre-frozen then fried type potatoes. They had a crisp, crunchy skin, and a perfectly cooked, butter-like interior. I loved them.
Overall: 18.5
The Grilled Cheese Benedict was bold, bucking tradition for unique and — quite literal — grilled cheese flavor. And for that, it reaches second place (here’s our number one so far) in our race to find the best eggs benny.