After a doozy of a night out in New Orleans the gin & tonics seemed to have caught up with me in the morn. I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror and looked as though a zombie were winking back at me. As everyone knows the best cure-all for the hangover is a greasy, carb-loaded brunch…
After a short stroll up Canal Street we arrived famished at one of NOLA’s most popular refuel diners, The Ruby Slipper Cafe. “We have an all day menu that means you can eat breakfast, lunch and brunch any time you like!” the menu reads. Mike and I arrived at the restaurants newest venue (a total of three can be found in the city) which offers a breezy dining room filled with hungry food fans gobbling up plates towering with sizzling breakfast bacon, plump poached eggs and crispy buttered biscuits.
Ruby Slipper Cafe is a family run business committed to supporting local products: sausage is made in Mid-City by Creole Country Sausage, dairy is sourced from Kleinpeter Farms, breads are baked in house and the Ruby Slipper Breakfast Blend coffee is roasted by French Truck Coffee. While fingering our way through the menu Mike and I sipped on petite grapefruit juice and frothy latte.
Highlights of our restorative Ruby Slipper Cafe brunch include a hearty Costa Rican Breakfast plate, sweet Bananas Foster Pain Perdu and an epic Eggs Cochon where slow-cooked apple braised pork sits atop a buttermilk biscuit, adorned with ooey gooey poached eggs and a stream of creamy hollandaise. You can feel the calories coursing through your body, eyes dilate and as you waddle home, realize you have finally woken up to the world.
The Feast:
Shrimp and Grits
gulf shrimp with amber beer reduction, creamy stone-round grits, buttermilk biscuit
Costa Rican Breakfast
gallo pinto, warm tomato salsa, two fried eggs, crispy plantains, sliced avocado, chorizo
Eggs Cochon
slow-cooked apple braised pork, buttermilk biscuit, poached eggs, hollandaise
Bananas Foster Pain Perdu
french toast, rum flambeed bananas and raisins, applewood-smoked bacon
