Allium: Another Amazing Brunch Place in East Nashville [Eat]

Thanks to the enterprising minds behind the Groupon concept, I've been able to try out some new restaurants that I might not have otherwise. I bought the Allium Groupon – $25 for $50 worth of food and drinks – a few months ago, and we tried it out a week or two ago.

Let me just say this: I LOVE brunch. It's my favorite meal (along with breakfast for supper and straight-up breakfast), and I probably should do an entry on my top 10 favorite brunch places in Nashville at some point. (Though it would be tough to pick a winner. Mad Donna's is definitely the most often frequented, for sure. I think I've been there three times in the past month.)

But this is about Allium, which is located in the bottom of the "embattled" 5th and Main condo complex, so it's on the East Nashville side of the river, though not as far east as Five Points, so I don't know if that's still considered part of our 'hood, but it's so tasty that I'll claim it.

I was surprised by the prices, in a good way: The food was nowhere near as expensive as I would have imagined. Entrees were around $11 with hearty portions, and even with cocktails, coffee and sides, it was hard for us to reach $50 (I think we got close, though, maybe $48). So this is an incentive to go back, because most of the time I will not be trying to gorge myself in order to get our money's worth.

Since we were trying to spend a certain amount of money, we did get bloody marys, which were amazing. I'm also a bloody mary connoisseur (goes hand-in-hand with brunch loving), and this one was the perfect mixture of tomato juice and alcohol – not too strong – and garnishes (celery and lime). Though I think Ty was disappointed at the lack of olives.

Our server was pretty attentive, but he looked eerily like a younger version of Jacob from Lost (with a pompadour). When he came to take our order and gave us some sort of option, we were like, "Do we have a choice?" At the end of the meal I did ask him if he had ever seen the show, which of course he hadn't. Oh well.

One more note about the atmosphere: The soundtrack included "Cruel, Cruel Summer" by Ace of Base, which Ty had never heard. I'll leave it at that.

Now, onto the good stuff:

The entrees, as I said, were hearty portions. Ty ordered the Allium Benedict, which is sliced black forest ham, poached eggs and hollandaise in a popover, with pepper jack grits and a side of Benton's bacon. The popover was a bit much... too much bread to egg/meat ratio. But still good, plus you don't feel as overindulgent if you don't clean your plate. The eggs were poached to perfection, and the grits were surprisingly edible... I am not a fan of a grits that don't have some sweet aspect (either white grits with butter and sugar like my grandma made them, or yellow corn grits with maple syrup like my mom made them), but these were not bland, and the pepper gave them a flavor reminiscent of gravy. So, yum.

Meanwhile, speaking of overindulgency, I had the Wild Mushroom Scramble, which is scrambled eggs and mushrooms over a puff pastry with asparagus covered with mornay sauce, along with a side of roasted potatoes. (Sidenote: I recently read My Life in France by Julia Child, and became obsessed with the various incarnations of béchamel sauce, so I know all about mornay.)

This dish was so decadent that I couldn't finish it. I was thankful for the asparagus making me feel like I'm getting something healthy in this butter-laden meal, but oh, it was amazing. The puff pastry was light and airy, like the inside of a croissant, and the mornay was so rich that I wished they hadn't used quite so much of it. But it was so delicious that I'm sure Julia would have been proud.

Breakfast Pizza [Eat]

Some friends of mine were in town, so yesterday we went to brunch at Mad Donna's. They had revamped their brunch menu since we'd last been there, adding some new items such as Crab Cake Benedict (yum, but filling – cheddar grits not necessary), quiche of the day and Breakfast Pizza, which Ty ordered. They used sausage gravy as the sauce of the pizza, which is pretty ingenious (if you like sausage).

We still had breakfast pizza on the brain, and today over coffee, my friend said next time we visited them they would make it for us. Then I realized we had an extra pizza crust on-hand, along with eggs, bacon and feta ... so we decided to make it today. We improvised – I had no spinach but did have mushrooms and parsley, and we only had four eggs. I also had a ton of cheese, and we ended up have a theme where we used only white cheese that I had on hand – feta, mozzarella, Monterey jack and Parmesan. (Speaking of cheeses, we've started buying a block and grating it ourselves – so much better! Too many chemicals and not enough flavor in the pre-shredded kind, despite its convenience.) I had watched our food stylist/recipe creator make breakfast pizza a few months ago, and I remembered that she baked the crust partially before, since the eggs make it hard to cook all the way through. But anyway, it turned out amazing, though my food photography skills are seriously lacking. The idea to blog about it later came late, and then I didn't want to spend time setting up food photos... it's good while it's hot!

Next time we might try this gravy as sauce concept, though. Mad Donna's version used pita bread instead and cheddar cheese, and I'm not sure if any veggies were in the eggs. Breakfast or dinner, I love making homemade pizza because you can just throw in whatever is in your crisper.

Anyway, without further ado:

Breakfast Pizza

1 pre-cooked pizza crust (I used Mama Mia thin crust)
4-6 large eggs (could have used one or two more)
splash of milk
4 strips bacon (optional)
2 large mushrooms, sliced
parsley, chopped (to taste)
2 cloves garlic, diced
salt and pepper to taste
feta cheese crumbles
Monterey jack and mozzarella cheese, grated
Parmesan cheese

Follow directions on pizza crust. Preheat oven to 425 degrees, and cook crust directly on rack for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Fry bacon in skillet and drain on paper towel when done.

Meanwhile, whisk eggs and milk together. Salt and pepper the eggs. Set aside.

Chop mushrooms, parsley and garlic. Sauté in olive oil for about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are done. Add egg mixture and scramble over low heat until eggs are no longer runny, but not cooked completely. Spoon egg mixture over crust.

Crumble up the bacon into bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle over egg mixture. Then add a handful or two of feta over the bacon, and grate the mozzarella and Monterey jack directly onto the pizza. Top with Parmesan.

Following directions on pizza crust box, bake at 425 for 7 1/2-10 minutes directly on rack. (We put a baking sheet underneath to catch any wayward cheese.) Remove, let cool for 2-3 minutes and cut into slices. Eat and enjoy!