Alchemy: Modern American Eatery (Hampden)

The super short version? 4 (crispy) strips of bacon out of 5.  They only bottomless option is Mimosa, but trust us, they are worth it!

Want more details?

Color of Mimosa: 5 
Flavor of Bloody Mary: 0!
Yumminess of Screwdriver: n/a
Server Recommended Entree: 4 (Avenue Benedict and Breakfast Crepe both earned 4s)
Crispness of Bacon: 4
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 6 (yes, we are aware it's out of 5)

      
This place is classy!  As Shannon says, "It's not the type of place where you can reek of ale with sunglasses still covering your eyes."  Also, the chairs are higher than the booths.  We don't know why, but it was mentioned several times from the people around us. Everyone was warm and friendly when we arrived and we were seated right away.  While we did make reservations, the place did not fill up until after 1:00PM.

If you want to guarantee some... let's say "afternoon delight", this is definitely the place to take your special someone.  Shannon said that she felt like she couldn't be her most silly self, but it wasn't necessarily a bad thing because she needs to be reigned in at times.  The occupants looked to be anywhere from 20s to 40s, but no children until later afternoon. 



Let's talk about our server for a moment.  Travis, you now have two new best friends.  Being able to discuss the right shade of mimosa, the recommendation of the chocolate chip zucchini bread, and the fact that our mimosa glasses were never empty?  You get super star status for that!  Plus, the shade on that last mimosa you made for Shannon?  Priceless.  
At Alchemy, they make the mimosas at the table by adding the champagne and orange juice right into your glass.         

Shannon's favorite shade!

Alright, now that I have waxed poetic about our beloved mimosa, I'll tell you about the food.  We started with the chocolate chip zucchini bread.  Heaven, pure heaven.  It was warm, buttery, and homey.  And disappeared quickly.  

Before

2 minutes later

On the recommendation of Travis, we ordered the Avenue Benedict, the Breakfast Crepe, and of course, a side of bacon. 

The Avenue Benedict inspired a new term - "farmy fresh."  The hollandaise sauce had mustard seeds in it, but you couldn't really taste them.  The Breakfast Crepe was savory and delicious.  Shannon would have preferred a little more sauce, but it was still great.  Our only compliant about the bacon was when we ran out!  It was crispy without us having to specify.            

The people around us all cleared their plates, and we would have too, except for our brush with heaven (aka Zucchini Bread).
   

We had this wonderful meal full of yumminess, and decided that true brunch professionals would need to sample the Bloody Mary. <cue the suspenseful music...>


  
Gorgeous aren't they?  Unfortunately, that's where the happiness ends.  Now, I will put the disclaimer out that Shannon and I don't like crabs.  Blasphemy in Maryland, I know.  However, neither of us are native to Maryland and feel we deserve a free pass. 

Our two words to describe this drink are "Fish Guts."  We tried to like this, we really did.  Shannon was a champ and finished her half; I wimped out after a couple sips.  We tried adding Sriracha to it, because Sriracha makes everything taste better.  Nope, then it was just spicy fish guts.

As we stated earlier, we had a really good meal there and next time we will just stick with the mimosas.  Or maybe those amazing looking dessert martinis the table next to us had.

Until next time,

Your H&H Girls       

Bistro Rx- Pajama Brunch (Upper Fells Point)

The super short version? 2.5 strips of bacon out of 5.  They have bottomless Mimosas, Bloody Marys, and Screwdrivers from 9am-2pm on Saturdays and 9am-3pm on Sundays.


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Color of Mimosa: 3.5 
Flavor of Bloody Mary: 4
Yumminess of Screwdriver: 4
Server Recommended Entree: 2.5 (Burrito a 3, Biscuits and Gravy a 2)
Crispness of Bacon: 3.5
Atmosphere: 5
Service: 2* (see the note lower about the super server)

Recommend making reservations for brunch because the place was busy! We came here for their Pajama Brunch on Sundays and while we were super excited to wear our pjs, (give us any chance to wear comfy clothes in public and we will take it) only the servers were participating.  There were a couple of families present, but it was mostly the 20s and 30s crowd.  We had previously been here for dinner and were amazed by the quality of the food.  My steak had been cooked to medium-rare perfection!

Unfortunately, that was not our experience this time.  Everything had started out so promising.  We were greeted warmly at the front door and shown to our reserved table.  We ordered a few minutes later and on suggestion from our server, who will remain nameless at this time to protect his identity, got the Biscuits and Gravy, the Breakfast Burrito, and a side of bacon.  Biscuits and Gravy?  Yes, please! Pig, cream and carbs?  Perfect.  And who can resist a burrito?  Not Shannon.  And of course we ordered the bottomless option, starting with our favorite, mimosas.  There was only a slight snafu in the form of an innocent question regarding the availability of tator tots, and a condescending answer that their restaurant is not an elementary school cafeteria.  Fortunately for him, he quickly brought back our mimosas and Shannon was sufficiently redirected.   

Love it being served in champagne glasses!

Let's talk about their mimosas for a minute since that is why we are all here.  We both thought the taste was good, but Shannon thought they were a little more "orange-y" than she prefers.  Lots of bubbles though!  
     
At this point, service was going okay.  And then the creamer debacle happened.  You know that feeling when you haven't had coffee yet and you are getting kind of desperate?  Well, we were brought our coffee right away, and I requested creamer, because that's how I roll.  We waited for about 5 minutes and watched our server not bring us creamer.  Then the super, amazing, wonderful server in the next section over noticed our mimosas were running low and refilled them for us.  We asked him for creamer and he went and  brought it right to us!  He was awesome!  Our server remembered to bring us creamer 11... yes I timed it, I prefer accuracy... minutes after we had requested it. 




Our food took about a mimosa and a half to get to us.  That is the official timing method of Hungry and Hungover.  It looked really good.  Though the "side of bacon" was three strips.  It was semi-crispy, but still delicious as most bacon is.  

As far as our entrees go, too salty was the consensus.  We both wound up pouring different types of hot sauce on them to try and counteract, but alas, it was not as successful as we had hoped.  Which really bummed us out!  Like I had said earlier, we had been here on a previous occasion for dinner and had an incredible meal. 


     

After two mimosas, we each felt it was our duty to try their Bloody Marys and Screwdrivers.  It was quite the hardship, but these are the things we do for others.  The Bloody Mary was great, really good flavor.  The Screwdriver was strong and the perfect way to finish up brunch. 

Overall, it wasn't bad.  The drinks were good, but food counts a lot the morning after the night before ;)


Till next time, 

Your H&H girls