Hendel’s Cafe Serves Lovely Sunday Brunch

When my guest and I headed to this week's choice, I thought we would beat the church crowd at Hendel’s by showing up at a quarter to 10, but the indoor dining room was already packed.

My brunch companion and I were still seated almost immediately at a table in the charming reclaimed front patio, which had once obviously been open to the air. Within 10 minutes, anyone walking in had a half hour or longer wait. 

Hendel’s looks like it was decorated by a tasteful grandmother with a weakness for country kitsch. There’s a lot of wicker and wrought iron, but they're tempered with nice expanses of exposed brick and fresh flowers on every table.

The incredibly affordable Sunday brunch menu is divided between omelets, staff favorites and sandwiches, which are all under $9. The five omelets offered the usual choices of cheese and veggies with your choice of breakfast meat, but my brunch companion and I were seduced by the carbs.

She picked the French toast, while I knew I had to have something with hash browns. Our waitress said the scrambled eggs were unusually good, so I opted for the steak, eggs and hash brown platter.

Let me start by saying my food was good--very good--but Hendel’s French toast was transcendent.

It came as a trio of two-inch thick diagonally sliced chunks of French baguette, soaked in a sweet eggy batter until beautifully soft, topped with some cinnamon then thrown on the grill. It came with syrup, but it was honestly so good neither of us bothered. The dusting of powdered sugar was all the additional sweetness it needed.

This is, without a doubt, the best rendition of French Toast I’ve had in many years. I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you go to Hendel’s and think you’re going to share some French toast, you’re wrong. There is nothing on your fellow diner’s plates you’d rather have.

Meanwhile, over on my plate, the six-ounce steak came out a perfect medium and nicely seasoned with a slightly sweet spice rub. My scrambled eggs clearly had plenty of milk added as well as a bit of elbow grease to beat them fluffy before cooking and a nice dash of extra flavor from the steak juices that leaked across my plate.

The waitress was right--these are unusually good scrambled eggs. All that protein was balanced out by the hasbrowns; crispy, dice cube-sized squares of potato coated in a paprika and onion-based seasoning mix with no hint of greasiness.

Based on the flavor and texture of the scrambled eggs, I suspect Hendel’s omelets are fantastic. I saw an order of pancakes brought to another table. While they looked good, I doubt there’s any way they could compete with the wonder that was the French toast.

It’s extremely rare for me to gush about a restaurant, but I honestly can’t think of a single blemish on my Sunday brunch experience. The prices were reasonable, we were seated promptly, our drinks were refilled a couple times, the waitress quickly and easily answered our few questions, our food came out quickly and proved to be everything we could want in a Sunday brunch experience.

We've touched on the Hendel's dinner in a previous review, and I can tell you the  Sunday Brunch menu is distinct from Hendel’s normal offerings.  

As a Sunday brunch destination, I give them an enthusiastic and well deserved A.