42 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY october 24-30, 2024 www.montereycountynow.com There are guidelines for brunch service. Mimosas, for example, are best if bottomless. Eggs benedict, omelets and French toast are musts on the menu. “Something eggy has to be on every dish,” observes Michael Rotondo, chef at Coastal Kitchen in Monterey. And the signature of the weekend meal is such that one might believe this is the case, given the prevalence of hollandaise sauce. For brunch service at the Monterey Plaza Hotel’s fine dining establishment, oysters are dressed with hollandaise, as well as a bacon mignonette. The oysters are puffs of ocean breeze, the sauce like a billowing gossamer curtain that drops, bracing expectations for a moment. The mignonette follows like a sweet and sanguine farewell. This is not a slurp-and-forget oyster. It’s a memory on the half shell. “When you mix in hollandaise and the bacon mignonette, you’re going to get good results,” Rotondo says. Then he hedges a bit on the role of eggs in a good brunch. After all, the options at Coastal Kitchen include avocado toast. “Maybe not every dish,” he concedes. Yet there is a common pattern to brunch. The offerings sway between sweet and savory. It’s a casual affair. Yet thanks to refinements—oysters, perhaps—brunch is also an occasion. For Rotondo, it represented an opportunity. The meal could be rescued from the noisy, hurried, elbow-to-elbow experience it has become. Just when and where the practice that became brunch began is lost to time. The first recorded mention of the word, however, is from an 1895 edition of the British publication Hunter’s Weekly and is telling. “It puts you in a good temper,” author Guy Beringer wrote of brunch. “It makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings.” In other words, Rotondo says, brunch is a leisurely affair, one where “you can be in the moment and let your worries go away.” So Rotondo and his team at Coastal Kitchen have elevated brunch to something worthy of Beringer’s plea. It’s a three-course, prix fixe menu with options, each dish prepared with the best ingredients and an elegant touch. At the same time, it is recognizable as brunch. Current menu items include smoked salmon flatbread, croissant French toast with lemon ricotta, a hash from short rib, potato rosti and roasted peppers. There’s also a “slush burger”—Dakota regional dialect for a sloppy Joe—of Wagyu beef. Crispy, herb-scented hashbrowns, sausages and bacon make up the family-style plate of sides. Coastal Kitchen’s benedict involves lobster, which is not a stretch. It is, however, a revelation. The dish is pretty, without being pretentious: plush yellow of such an even tone to be arresting; the speckled reds and deep browns dabbling the soft taupe of shellfish; a tucked and rumpled blanket of green spinach. Break the yolk and a glorious orange cascades over the whole. What plays out over the palate is equally captivating, with the briny sweetness of lobster embraced by the luxuriant cashmere of the hollandaise. But the genius is in the foundation, not of English muffin, but of cornbread. Its earthen sweetness gives depth to lobster. “Isn’t that good?” Rotondo says. “I was even surprised.” What the team at Coastal Kitchen has achieved is an elevated brunch, but not one that is stuffy or out of reach. Although $75 per person may seem over the top, compared dish for dish with other restaurants, the price is comparable. “There’s value there,” Rotondo says. “They’ll see a price they’re not used to, but the Champagne takes it over the top.” Yes, bottomless Champagne. Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups, Nicolas Feuillatte and similar bottles— not triple-digit labels, but not inexpensive Prosecco cut with orange juice. By the 1890s, brunch had been labeled the “latest fad.” By the 1940s, Millicent Fenwick in Vogue’s Book of Etiquette dismissed the meal as a “pseudo-breakfast” of buffet lines. Now skeptics can point to hastily-prepared benedicts and cheap mimosas. At Coastal Kitchen, they’ve returned civility to brunch—without ditching the casual fun. Coastal Kitchen, 400 Cannery Row (Monterey Plaza Hotel), Monterey. 645-4064, coastalkitchenmonterey. com. First course Brunch is served at the elegant Coastal Kitchen in Monterey. Chef Michael Rotondo and his team have created a stepped up experience. Fright Night…A zombie and an otter walk into a bar. That’s not the start of a joke. A few cool P.G. establishments have put together the Zombie Otter Crawl on Saturday, Oct. 26. Dress in costume and make your way through downtown, stopping for drinks, bites and live music along the way. Gather at Monarch Pub at 6pm. Then it’s off—at a zombie’s pace—to PG Meeting House and Pop and Hiss, before winding up at Hops & Fog. Different costume winners at each location. Fright night? Only for the P.G. NIMBYs. Monarch Pub is at 617 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove. Top Class…Do you go down rabbit holes of cookie decorating videos? If so, good news. Room For Dessert is hosting two Halloween-themed cookie decorating classes on Saturday, Oct. 26. The first is for beginners from 9am-noon for $50 per person and the second is for advanced from 1:30-5pm, and runs $65 per person. 420 Pacific St., Monterey. savingroomfordessert.com. Spooky Good…Given all the orange and black frosting, it’s hard not to notice Halloween is fast approaching. Cafe Carmel not only offers spookythemed treats, but also a menu celebrating Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. And 10 percent of proceeds go to Hijos Del Sol Arts Productions, supporting programs for underserved youth. So treats do some good through Nov. 2. Ocean between Mission and San Carlos, Carmel. 624-3870, cafecarmel.com. Yacht It Up…Grab your nautical themed Pashmina Afghans and shake and sip the night away at Carmel Mission Inn on Saturday, Oct. 26 at De Tierra Vineyard’s Yachtober party. Indulge in a ship-inspired night with a red carpet reception, yacht rock, a luxurious banquet, wines and a dance floor. $100 per person, discounted for club members. Carmel Mission Inn at 3665 Rio Road, Carmel. 624-1841, carmelmissioninn.com. First Prize…Coastal Roots Hospitality is honoring our heroes by celebrating first responders on First Responder’s Day, Oct. 28. First responders get 15-percent off their check, excluding alcohol, for tables of up to four people at Tarpy’s Roadhouse, Montrio Bistro, Rio Grill. Tarpy’s is at 2999 Highway 68 Monterey, 647-1444, tarpys. com. Montrio at 414 Calle Principal, Monterey, 648-8880, montrio.com. Rio Grill at 101 Crossroads Blvd., Carmel, 625-5436, riogrill.com. By Jacqueline Weixel morsels eatanddrink@montereycountynow.com “You can be in the moment and let your worries go away.” Eat + DrinK Daniel Dreifuss Grand Prix With its three-course prix fixe menu, Coastal Kitchen takes brunch to a new level. By Dave Faries
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==