Town Talk Diner, 27 May 2018

Ah, brunch. The thing your girlfriend wants to do that you used to do but when you did it, it was just drinking straight hard alcohol from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon.
This is going to be a weekend brunch post, so Sandwich Bully is going to be Eggs Benedict Bully for a minute. Don’t talk shit. I’ve also made this motherfucker Fish & Chips Bully twice before. I will do what I want how I want. Call your mama and cry about it.
Assholes.
ANYhoo, GF and I make way to a swap meet yesterday where the only thing I had any interest in was a stack of Batman comics and she was all, “Meh.” So we explored a book store where she got a book of poisonous plants and I got an Italian cookbook. Then we were hungry so we decided to hit Hi-Lo, then we saw the line at Hi-Lo and decided to double back for this joint I saw on the way called Town Talk Diner.
First impression? Right as we got in the door, some very happy diminutive gentleman greeted and seated us in a very lovely decorated but otherwise mostly dead restaurant, there were maybe four people there beside us in a room capable of holding twelve times that many.
Our server was prompt, friendly as hell, and could give solid recommendations. GF got a bloody mary (made with an assertive but not unpleasant dill vodka), I got the “Sunday Coffee” Old Fashion, which I should have looked more closely at the menu description - cognac, Du Nord Cafe Frieda, house bitters - because my dumb ass thought I was getting coffee with cognac in it. Nope. I drank an Old Fashioned. In the morning.
It tasted nothing like coffee but OK.
We split a plate of Eggs Benedict with a side of bacon, which meant that I had the Eggs Benedict and she had a piece of bacon. It was different from your traditional Bennies; in place of English muffins and Canadian bacon, they lay poach eggs and (a wonderfully lemony) hollandaise on a semi-sweet pulled pork supported underneath by a plank of thin bread toasted on one side, allowing the untoasted side to soak up the pork juice. It was served with these curious little orange-yellow potato balls that were crispy on the outside and - I can’t think of a better word - al dente in the middle and then some greens on the other side. The bacon turned out to be at least three sixteenths of an inch thick and given a thin sweet maple glaze.
Typically, I’m a traditionalist. See every argument I’ve made about the contents of a Reuben here on Sandwich Bully. The Eggs Benedict here? Four components, two of which are variations, that’s fifty percent. Can we still call this Eggs Benedict? I don’t know, man. It’s rreeaall fucking borderline. That and it tasted eggselent - yes, I went there, fuck you - so I’m leaning toward the forgiving side. Also, full disclosure, it is listed on the menu as “TTD Benedict”, so they’re totally copping to this being their spin on it.
Let’s run down the list, or up the list, as it were, from bottom to top:

1. Toast - Crispy on one side, absorptive on the other, a competent delivery vehicle.
   
2. Pork - Pulled pork is a nice variation, definitely switched up the game, better than ham medallions anyway. It was, as mentioned, semi-sweet, a bit savory, like a very subtle barbecue flavor but with less smoke and more complexity.
   
3. Eggs - I’ll be damned if they weren’t poached to perfection with a runny yellow yolk under a tender bordering on fragile white in a semi-circular finished state with zero anomalies.
   
4. Hollandaise - Lemony without being sour and a thick creamy texture. I’m probably wrong but I picked up notes of umami from an extra virgin olive oil. I’d be curious to get their recipe. GF said she liked it and noted that she’s had some dreadful hollandaise in the past. I think we all have. You want the good stuff? Go to Town Talk.
   

Overall experience was great. We walked into a place that we were a bit under dressed for (meaning I was under dressed for it, wearing my Debbie Does Dallas t-shirt only because GF allowed me to) and they still delivered some of the best goddamned service I’ve experienced - especially after we split a dish which I know some servers see as a loss on a tip. Dude was attentive, prompt, and I didn’t feel like we actually had to wait between placing our order and receiving it. That might have been because the place was a graveyard yesterday morning.
I can’t dock any points - I expected coffee with cognac in it but I should have, you know, read the menu.
Well, I can dock one point for that they played Dave Matthews Band on the stereo system but then I have to give them that point back because they later played the Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” and there were some other great sixties hits. Mostly chill stuff. I think the Who was the heaviest it got all morning.
Anyway, you should go check out their brunch. Give them your money.