During our visit to Fort Lauderdale for the Fraternal Order of Moai FOMCon, we stayed at the Ocean Manor Beach Resort, one of Fort Lauderdale’s older and more venerable beach hotels (Johnny Carson had a penthouse there, and the Rat Pack were regular 60s and 70s visitors). And it has a reasonably good Tiki bar out back with a nice breakfast, but after a few days, we really felt we needed to explore a bit and find some broader breakfast items. Which led us to a smaller café a few blocks away on Ocean Boulevard called Brew It Café.
Both the restaurant name itself, and the overall appearance walking in, initially make you think that Brew It Café is just a coffee place; they’ve got the usual ordering counter with a counter behind it with coffee grinders, espresso machines, and various bags of coffee, and a nice pastry case with a variety of pastries. And while I’m sure the pastries are good, that’s not why we came. Brew It also has a full breakfast menu with sit-down service, and a rather good list of breakfast items including omelettes, quiches, Danishes and crêpes. The very friendly and attentive staff got us seated at a nice table with some menus and started us off with coffees while we decided.
One of my more standard dining out breakfasts is a good eggs Benedict. I rather like a lot of the more inventive Benedicts out there, particularly an Irish Benedict (corned beef hash) or a Blackstone (bacon and tomato), but I’m generally pretty picky that a proper Benedict needs to come on an English muffin, preferably grilled instead of toasted. But the option here at Brew It was the “Eggs Bun-edict”, which instead of an English muffin comes served on a split and toasted croissant. While I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this other places before, it’s a less usual variation, and sounded quite good, so we both ordered the Bun-edict with spinach and bacon. I was quite pleased with the resulting sandwich: a nice, flaky croissant, grilled to just a light crisp, with some nice thick sliced bacon, lightly wilted spinach, and a nicely tangy Hollandaise sauce. This is one of the better Benedicts I’ve had this year.
One thing I always like to enjoy with a good Benedict is a side of home fries, particularly so I can dredge some of the home fries through some of the leftover Hollandaise sauce. So Carol and I decided to split an order of the vaguely-identified “Breakfast Potatoes”, not really sure if these were going to be home fries, hash browns, or something else… and were nicely rewarded. These were well-above average home fries, properly double-cooked (parcooked and then fried), with a nice tender and fluffy interior, a nice exterior crisp, and a nice light dusting of fresh herbs and salt. These were exactly the style of home fries that I like to dredge through the leftover sauce, and a nice way to round out the breakfast.
I really liked Brew It Café. The restaurant is pleasant, the menu nicely broad and well-executed, and the prices reasonable. The staff was particularly pleasant and welcoming, readily offering menu advice, refills, and checking up on us. It’s definitely a great breakfast spot that I’d love to re-visit if I’m back in the area.
