Weekend Eighty-Five: Pagliacci's Encore

So. You, dear reader, are surely familiar with our long-lasting love of Pagliacci's lunches and dinners. But did you know that they also serve Sunday Brunch? Neither did we. With our expectations high, we headed out to see what was what.

First off, brunch is only served on Sunday. Secondly, our advice about dinner service wasn't necessary. We arrived at 10:30, walked right in, and were seated without a wait. The place was perhaps half full, but the staff seemed to be run off their feet regardless. We did spot the owner and the manager dressed in street clothes, seemingly just visiting with the staff and some favoured patrons, which may have caused the staff to look busy.

Enough about that. What did we have? I selected the Reefer Madness Hash ($16), with steak, scrambled eggs, red and green peppers, onions, and cheese, while Catie chose the Francis Bacon benny with Whole Beast bacon ($13).

The benny was served on their famous foccacia bread. Awesome! The Hollandaise was smooth, and the potatoes crispy. Catie's bacon was excellent. I know because she shared it with me. However, she did order the eggs poached hard and they were a definite runny medium. Perhaps Pagliacci's knows better than the customer how eggs should be poached.

My steak was cooked medium, and had a lovely rich flavour. It paired nicely with the sharp cheese and the peppers. The potatoes were golden and crispy, but I didn't pay much attention to them. Onions were also present, but I didn't pay much attention to them either. Would I have it again? Yes. Should you have it? I recommend it.

We overheard another table speaking loudly to their server. It sounded like they used to serve bagels or pretzels with the meals, like the bread served at dinner time, and the patrons were quite upset. The server countered with "We didn't serve bread with brunch at all for a while. It was chaos!" We were grateful for the brunch bread, though it was neither as crispy or as hot as the dinner bread.