Brunch worth a munch

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This article was published 24/09/2020 (2028 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brunch sometimes gets a bad rap. There are regular journalistic takedowns of brunch as a trap of long lines, watered-down day-drinks and overpriced eggs, as well as clickbaity pieces positing brunch as a culinary signifier of millennial decadence.

I want to go on the record as being pro-brunch. (Also pro-millennial.) Yes, there are potential pitfalls to this in-between meal, but when brunch is done right, as it is at this new spot in Old St. Vital, it’s lovely.

One of the reasons Juneberry is so good is that the resto specializes in brunch. It’s not just throwing out some cantaloupe-garnished clichés while the kitchen is really thinking about supper. Juneberry is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., and it is all about the brunch.

Like any serious bruncher, we should start with the coffee. Juneberry serves coffee from Gimli’s Flatland Coffee Roasters, and their strong but balanced Americano will set you right up.

We should also talk mimosas, the go-to 21st-century brunch drink: Juneberry’s options include a zingy pomegranate and sage variant.

There’s a rotating kombucha cocktail — right now you can walk that virtue-vice line by combining the health boost of Saskatoon berry kombucha with a jolt of Stoli vodka — as well as other artisanal drinks. Juneberry offers an edited wine list, and the small selection of beers tactfully hits favourites from seven local brewers.

The seasonal menu changes, but expect a core of egg-based brunchiness. There are some sweet options (French toast with whipped lemon ricotta) and some savoury choices (a breakfast egg-and-sausage sandwich on toasted brioche). There’s also some more conventionally lunchy midday fare (a Thai red curry bowl, a grilled chicken club, a quartet of salads).

The best dishes manage to be indulgent but also restrained.

There are no out-of-control brunch portions here, which is good. I would much rather have a small plate of perfect potatoes than a massive platter of mediocre spuds. And the potatoes at Juneberry are perfect — cooked up crisp but soft inside and perked up nicely with chermoula, a bright and fragrant North African condiment, and pickled red onions.

The classic two-egg breakfast is simple but well executed. Along with the eggs, you get bacon or juicy sage-infused house-ground sausage patties and crisp Red Spring sourdough toast served with dense Saskatoon berry jam.

And what about the eggs benny? When it comes to brunch, this is where things can go very wrong, but Juneberry gets this much-abused dish right. The kitchen’s egg poaching is consistently good, whether you want soft, medium or hard. (I don’t understand hard poached eggs, but I support a diner’s right to choose.) The base is made up of well-toasted house-baked focaccia and a thin line of grilled mortadella, and the hollandaise is light and lemony, with the resiny sharpness of the rosemary cutting all that buttery richness.

Beyond the usual dishes, there is a breakfast banh mi, loaded with lemongrass-scented pork (or sautéed mushrooms) and a strip of egg, the only slight letdown being the bun, which lacks the crisp finish of a real Saigon-style baguette. Honduran baleadas, the flour tortillas fried up brown and flakey, contain a tasty scramble of eggs, sweet potatoes (or flank steak) and black beans.

The tomato and goat cheese salad is creamy and tangy, the whipped cheese melting into a kind of dressing for the bursting intensity of local autumn tomatoes, and the caramelized fennel giving a complex finish.

The brief dessert menu includes a Saskatoon berry butter tart. (The Saskatoon berry is a kind of leitmotif at this restaurant, “juneberry” being another name for this Prairie fruit.) It’s not overly sweet and it’s nicely offset with a pool of cardamom-scented yogurt and chopped pistachios. Butter tart purists may be perplexed, though — some people consider even a scattering of raisins heretical — because this dessert has a lot of berry and not a lot of the standard butter tart filling.

The renovated restaurant has a good-looking interior, with lots of warming colours, as well as a patio (at least for now) with a view of a riverside park. The small details are good — tables are set with substantial striped bistro linens and rustic ceramic plates.

Service has a friendly good-morning vibe. Servers are masked, but you can tell they’re smiling.

alison.gillmor@freepress.mb.ca